ILOS  f. 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


Edited  by  Richard  T.  Ely,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Econoay, 

U-iyersi'y  of  Wi<)cooiin 


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LABOR  PROBLEMS 


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BY 

THOMAS  SEWALL  ADAMS,  Ph.D. 

Assistant  Professor  of  Political  Ecouomy 
in  the  University  of  Wisconsin 

AND 

HELEN  L.  SUMNER,  A.B. 

Honorary  Fellow  in  Political  Economy 
in  the  University  of  Wisconsin 


2)3?'}? 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1920 

A/i  rights  reser-veJ 


Cos  TRIGHT,  19«5 

bt  the  m.iCmillan  company 

Set  ue  and  elec'i  otyped.   I'ut.'Iish^d  January,  190;- 


HI) 

CO  p'  1^ 


PREFACE 

The  principal  aim  of  this  book  is  to  furnish  a  conven- 
ient collection  of  facts  that  will  facilitate  the  study  and 
the  teaching  of  the  American  labor  problem.  It  is  hoped 
that  the  book  will  be  not  without  interest  for  the  general 
reader.  But  it  is  the  requirements  of  the  undergraduate 
student,  and  the  convenience  of  the  teacher  of  under- 
graduates, that  have  been  kept  constantly  in  mind. 
Where  it  was  necessary,  we  have  sacrificed  both  interest 
and  general  social  philosophy,  in  order  to  present  con- 
crete facts 

We  believe  that  the  gravest  differences  of  opinion  about 
the  labor  problem,  and  the  most  dangerous  misapprehen- 
sions, are  caused  by  the  failure  to  view  the  problem 
broadly,  to  consider  its  many  phases  and  ramifications. 
The  labor  problem  is  greater  than  the  problem  of  trade 
unionism,  far  more  important  than  the  problem  of  indus- 
trial peace.  Impelled  by  this  conviction,  we  have  pre- 
ferred to  cover  a  broad  field  imperfectly,  rather  than  a 
narrow  field  in  detail. 

We  have  necessarily  left  much  to  be  done  by  the  teachei 
or  the  reader  himself.  There  are  important  questions 
such  as  the  problem  of  the  unskilled  workers,  which  hav 
been  passed  by  without  a  word ;  there  are  logical  gap  a 


VI  PREFACE 

which  should  be  filled,  such  as  the  extent  to  which  the 
progress  of  the  last  century  may  fairly  be  attributed  to 
trade  unions,  strikes,  and  the  other  ' '  remedies ' '  discussed 
in  Book  II;  there  are  fact^  stated  and  statistics  cited 
which  are  sadly  in  need  of  long  critical  discussions  con- 
cerning their  probable  validity  and  precise  meaning  •  and 
finally,  there  has  been  given  no  statement  and  little  inti- 
mation of  the  general  social  theory  which  most  logically 
and  consistently  explains  the  facts  cited. 

These  lacunae  we  have  attempted  to  fill,  in  a  measure, 
by  the  citation  of  certain  Supplementary  Headings,  de- 
signed to  eke  out  our  treatment  where  it  is  especially 
inadequate,  or  to  present  another  point  of  view  when  our 
interpretation  is  particularly  dubious.  For  the  most 
part,  however,  these  defects  must  be  remedied  by  the 
teacher  or  by  wider  reading  on  the  part  of  the  student 
himself.  It  is  impossible  to  say  all  that  should  be  said 
about  the  American  labor  problem  in  a  single  volume,  and 
say  it  in  the  concrete  way  which  the  temperament  of  the 
undergraduate  student  and  the  exigencies  of  the  college 
examination  require. 

The  authors  take  sincere  pleasure  in  acknowledging  the 
valuable  assistance  of  Professor  Richard  T.  Ely  and  Pro- 
fessor John  R.  Commons,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
who  have  read  the  manuscript  and  have  made  many  help- 
ful suggestions.  To  Mr.  Max  0.  Lorenz  we  are  indebted 
for  many  valuable  suggestions  concerning  the  distribution 
of  wealth.  Acknowledgments  are  also  due  to  numerous 
correspondents  in  different  parts  of  the  country  who  have 


PREFACE  vii 

furnished  information,  particularly  the  various  persons 
and  firms  whose  experience  in  profit  sharing  furnishes  the 
basis  for  a  portion  of  the  chapter  vipon  that  subject,  and 
to  the  editors  of  cooperative  papers  and  the  organizers  of 
cooperative  associations,  who  have  furnished  valuable 
material. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION. 

Chapter  Pagro 

I.  The  Labor  Problem  and  Its  Genesis 3 


BOOK  I. 

II.  Woman  and  Child  Labor,  by  H.  L.  S 19 

1.  Historic  Conditions  and  Development  of  Legisla- 

tion in  England 20 

2.  Rise  of  the  Problem  in  the  United  States 24 

3.  Legislation  in  the  United  States 30 

4.  Occupations  of  Working  Women  and  Children. ...  37 

5.  Woman  and  Child  Labor  in  the  Manufacturing  In- 

dustries    40 

6.  Nativity  and  Color  of  Working  Women  and  Chil- 

dren    47 

7.  Special  Problems  of  Woman  Labor 51 

a.  Married  Women  in  Industry 52 

b.  Low  Wages 55 

c.  Competition  with  Men 56 

8.  Conditions  of  Child  Labor 58 

a.  Ages 58 

b.  Hours    61  ' 

c.  Health  62 

d.  Education   64  i 

CII.  Immigration,  by  H.  L.  S 68 

1.  Extent  and  Causes  of  Immigration 69 

2.  Race  and  Nativity  of  Immigrants 72 

3.  Distribution  of  Immigrants 75 

4.  Economic  Aspects  of  Immigration 79 

a.  The  Standard  of  Life 80 

ix 


X  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Paee 

b.  Occupations  81 

c.  Wages  and  Unemployment 87 

5.  Special  Problems 89 

a.  Illiteracy    89 

b.  The  Padrone  System 90 

c.  "Birds  of  Passage" 91 

d.  Canadian  Immigration 92 

6.  Legislation    93 

7.  Chinese  and  Japanese  Immigration 99 

a.  History  of  the  Problem 99 

b.  Numbers  in  the  United  States 101 

c.  Chinese  and  Japanese  in  Industry 102 

d.  Legislation  105 

8.  The  Problem  of  Immigration 107 

IV.  The  Sweating  System,  by  H.  L.  S 113 

1.  Characteristics  of  the  System 114 

2.  Rise  of  the  Problem 119 

3.  Legislation   122 

4.  Present  Status 126 

5.  Social  Aspects 130 

6.  Conditions  of  Labor 134 

7.  Sweating  and  Its  Remedies 138 

V.  Poverty,  Earnings  and  Unemployment,  by  T.  S.  A 142 

1.  Poverty   142 

2.  Wages  and  Earnings 154 

3.  Unemployment 160 

BOOK  IL 

VI.  Strikes  and  Boycotts,  by  T.  S.  A 175 

1.  Definitions 175 

2.  History  of  Strikes 176 

3.  Statistics  of  Strikes 179 

4.  Trade  Unions  and  the  Strike 181 

5.  Causes  of  Strikes 185 

6.  The  Legal  Aspect  of  Strikes   187 


CONTENTS  rf 

Ohapter  Pago 

a.  Combinations  to  Terminate  Employment 189 

a   Statute  Law  on  Strikes 194 

b.  Picketing  195 

c.  Boycotting  196 

7.  The  Blacklist 200 

8.  Criticism  of  the  Law 202 

9.  Strikes  and  the  Public  Welfare 206 

VII.  Labor  Organizations  and  Employers'  Associations, 

by  T.  S.  A 214 

j  .      1.  Definitions   214 

2.  History   215 

3.  Historical  Lessons 223 

4.  Government 228 

5.  Structure  and  Organization 230 

6.  Jurisdiction  Disputes 234 

7.  The  Economic  Justification  of  Labor  Organiza- 

tion      240 

8.  Methods  and  Policies 245 

a.  Inclusive  Methods 245 

b.  Exclusive  Methods 246 

(1).  Entrance  to  the  Trade 246 

(2).  Restriction  of  Membership 248 

(3).  The  New  Trades  Combination 250 

c.  Monopoly  and  Labor  Organization 252 

d.  Regulation  of  Wages 255 

e.  Hours  of  Labor 259 

f.  Attitude  Towards  Machinery ^62 

g.  Restriction  of  Output 263 

h.  Strikes,  Boycotts  and  Arbitration 266 

i.  Insurance  Benefits 269 

9.  The  Incorporation  of  Labor  Organizations 271 

10.  Employers'  Associations 279 

VIIL  The  Agencies  of  Industrial  Peace,  by  T.  S.  A 287 

1.  Definitions 287 

2.  Governmental    Conciliation    and    Arbitration    in 

England  289 

3.  The  French  Conseils  de  Prudhommes 292 


xii  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

4.  The  French  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Act  of 

1892    295 

5.  Governmental    Conciliation    and    Arbitration    in 

the  United  States 295 

)        6.  Collective    Bargaining,    Joint    Conferences    and 
^  Trade  Arbitration 301 

7.  Structure  and  Organization  of  Joint  Conferences 

and  Trade  Boards  of  Arbitration 305 

8.  Statistics  of  Collective  Bargaining  and  Trade  Ar- 

bitration     316 

9.  Compulsory  Arbitration  in  New  Zealand 319 

10.  Compulsory  Arbitration  in  the  United  States. . . .   325 

IX.  Profit  Sharing,  by  H.  L.  S 333 

1.  Methods  of  Profit  Sharing 335 

a.  Cash  Bonus 336 

b.  Deferred  Participation 336 

c.  Stock  Ownership  by  Employees 338 

d.  Amount  of  Bonus 341 

e.  Distribution  of  the  Bonus 342 

f.  Qualifications  for  Participation 343 

2.  Profit  Sharing  and  Trade  Unionism 344 

3.  Industrial   Partnership 347 

a.  The  Maison  Leclaire 348 

b.  The  Godin  Familistere 349 

c.  The  Bon  Marche 350 

d.  William  Thomson  and  Sons 352 

4.  History  and  Present  Status  of  Profit  Sharing....  353 

a.  In  France 353 

b.  In  England 355 

c.  In  Other  European  Countries 358 

5.  Profit  Sharing  in  the  United  States 358 

(1).  The  Peace  Dale  Manufacturing  Company..    360 
(2).  The  Columbus  Railway  and  Light  Company.    361 

(3).  The  Roycroft  Press 361 

(4).  The  Solvay  Process  Company 361 

(5).  The  Acme  Sucker  Rod  Company 362 

(6).  The  Proctor  and  Gamble  Company 363 

(7).  The  Bourne  Mills 364 


CONTENTS  xlu 

Chapter  Page 

(8).  The  Ballard  and  Ballard  Company 365 

(9).  The  Cabot  Manufacturing  Company 366 

(10).  The  Baker  Manufacturing  Company 367 

(11).  The  N.  O.  Nelson  Company 368 

6.  Profit  Sharing  and  the  Labor  Problem 371 

a.  Economic  Basis  of  Profit  Sharing 371 

b.  Objections  to  the  Principle  of  Profit  Sharing. .  376 

X.  Cooperation,  by  H.  L.  S 379 

1.  Methods  of  Cooperation 380 

a.  Consumers'  Cooperation 381 

(1).  Methods  of  Dividing  Profits 382 

(2).  Prices    383 

(3).  Cash  Payments 384 

(4) .  Share  of  Employees 384 

(5).  Wholesale  Societies 385 

(6) .  Discount  Societies 385 

b.  Producers'  Cooperation 386 

(1).  Ownership  of  Capital 387 

(2).  Distribution  of  Profits 388 

(3).  Individualist  and  Federalist  Schools 389 

C.  Cooperative  Credit 390 

(1).  Credit  Unions 390 

(2).  Building  and  Loan  Associations 391 

2.  Development  of  Consumers'  Cooperation 394 

a.  The  Rochdale  System 394 

b.  The  English  and  Scottish  Wholesale  Societies 

and  Consumers' Cooperative  Production 395 

C.  Consumers'    Cooperation    in    Other    European 

Countries   397 

d.  History  of  the  Movement  in  the  United  States.  397 

(1).  The  Union  Stores 398 

(2) .  The  Patrons  of  Husbandry 399 

(3).  The  Sovereigns  of  Industry 400 

(4) .  The  Labor  Exchange 401 

e.  Growth  and  Present  Status  of  Consumers'  Co- 

operation in  the  United  States 401 

(1).  The  New  England  Movement 403 

(2).  The  Kansas  Movement 404 


xiv  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Pagre. 

(3) .  The  Pacific  Coast  Movement 404 

(4).  The  Right  Relationship  League 405 

3.  Development  of  Producers'  Cooperation 407 

a.  Growth  of  the  Movement  in  France 408 

b.  Associations  for  Contract  Labor 410 

c.  Producers'  Cooperation  in  England 411 

d.  Producers'     Cooperation    in    Other    European 

Countries   413 

e.  Producers'  Cooperation  in  the  United  States..  413 

(1).  History  of  the  Movement 414 

(2).  The  Minneapolis  Coopers 415 

(3).  Other  Existing  Experiments 417 

4.  The  Success  and  Failure  of  Cooperation 419 

a.  Commercial   Status  of  the  Cooperative  Move- 

ment    419 

(1).  Causes  of  the  Success  of  Consumers'  Co- 
operation      420 

(2).  Practical    Difficulties   and    Limitations    of 

Producers'   Cooperation 422 

b.  Labor  Copartnership 425 

c.  Cooperation  as  a  Solution  of  the  Labor  Problem  426 

(1).  Weakness  of  Consumers'  Cooperation 427 

(2).  Weakness  of  Producers'  Cooperation 430 

XI.  Industrial  Education,  by  H.  L.  S 433 

^ 4r  The  Decline  of  the  Apprenticeship  System 435 

. 2.  Present  Status  of  Apprenticeship 440 

3.  Industrial  Education 443 

4.  Trade  Schools 445 

5.  Technical  and  Art  Schools 452 

6.  General  Aspects 455 

XII.  Labor  Laws,  by  T.  S.  A 461 

1.  Historical  Development  of  Labor  Legislation 461 

2.  The  Factory  Acts 467 

3.  Laws  Regulating  the  Hours  of  Labor 468 

4.  Regulation  of  Wage  Payment 474 

5.  Other  Protective  Laws 475 


CONTENTS  XV 

Chapter  Page 

6.  Employers'  Liability 478 

7.  Workmen's  Compensation  Acts 487 

8.  Compulsory    Insurance 488 

9.  Minimum  Wage  Laws 493 

XIII.  The  Material  Progress  of  the  Wage  Earning  Classes, 

by  T.  S.  A 502 

1.  History  of  Wages 503 

2.  Decrease  in  the  Hours  of  Labor 515 

3.  Movement  of  Unemployment 519 

4.  General  Progress  in  the  Last  Century 521 

5.  The  Good  Old  Times— A  Contrast 527 

6.  The  Concentration  of  Wealth 532 

7.  Conclusion    544 

Appendix  A.  Woman  and  Child  Labor  Laws  in  the  United 

States    551 

Appendix  B.  Profit  Sharing  in  the  United  States 555 

Appendix  C.  Earnings  and  Unemployment  in  1901 559 


INTRODUCTION 


CENESIS  OF  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  GENESIS  ^ 

In  a  very  general  and  abstract  sense  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  the  labor  problem,  which  may  be  defined  as  the 
problem  of  improving  the  conditions  of  employment  of 
the  wage-earning  classes.  Of  course,  this  simplicity  of 
definition  is  largely  verbal.  There  is  no  one  labor  prob- 
lem whose  solution  would  carry  with  it  the  settlement  of 
all  others :  and  we  shall  always  have  labor  problems  so 
long  as  there  are  conditions  of  emplojTnent  capable  of 
improvement.  The  consequence  is  that  when  we  begin  to 
study  the  problem  it  divides  up  into  a  number  of  evils  and 
abuses  like  sweating  and  child  labor,  for  each  of  which  in 
turn  a  number  of  practical  remedies  are  in  use  or  under 
active  consideration.  It  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  most 
of  the  important  labor  problems  have  their  roots  in  three 
or  four  great  social  institutions.  These  institutions  it  is 
desirable  to  keep  firmly  in  mind,  not  only  because  of  their 
exceptional  importance,  but  in  order  that  the  somewhat 
overwhelming  mass  of  details  cited  in  the  following  chap- 
ters may  be  given  a  certain  unity  of  meaning  and  import, 
without  which  they  become  unintelligible  and  wearisome. 

First  of  all,  naturally,  is  the  wage  system  itself.  If 
our  industrial  order  rested  either  upon  a  basis  of  slavery 

8 


4  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

or  upon  one  of  socialism  the  problem  Avoiild  be  entirely 
different.  Under  those  sj^stems,  if  successfully  operated, 
the  laborer  would  be  assured  a  place  to  work  and  a  mini- 
mum, at  least,  of  food,  clothes  and  shelter.  Under  the 
wage  system,  on  the  other  hand,  the  laborer  takes  upon 
himself  the  responsibility  of  securing  work  and  of  sup- 
porting himself  and  family.  More  important  still,  he 
must  do  this  by  selling  his  services  to  the  great  masters  of 
industry.  He  has  become  not  only  a  producer,  but  a  mer- 
chant as  well.  He  must  acquire  a  certain  strength  or 
skill,  and  then  sell  it  to  the  best  advantage.  Slowly  and 
gradually  institutions  are  perfected  to  strengthen  his 
weakness  and  ignorance  in  this  bargaining  with  the  em- 
ployer. Society  creates  customs  which  harden  into  stand- 
ards of  life  or  comfort,  and  assist  the  laborer  to  bargain 
more  effectually.  The  laborers  themselves  combine  in 
trade  unions,  by  which  these  standards  are  more  con- 
sciously fixed  and  more  tenaciously  maintained ;  and  in 
time  the  laborer  begins  to  bargain  through  agents— walk- 
ing delegates.  Underlying  all  the  problems  which  Avill  be 
discussed,  however,  is  this  system  which  casts  upon  the 
laborer  the  responsibility  for  his  own  maintenance,  which 
makes  him  merchant  as  well  as  producer,  and  compels 
him  to  take  his  chances  and  stake  his  Avelfare  upon  suc- 
cessful bargaining  in  the  labor  market. 

Second  in  order,  and  not  less  important  than  the  wage 
system  in  accounting  for  the  peculiar  nature  of  the 
problem,  is  the  highly  capitalized  form  of  modern  indus- 
try.    The  introduction  of  the  capitalistic  system  has  Deen 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  GENESIS  5 

followed  by  great  and  unmistakable  progress  in  many 
ways,  such  as  a  general  increase  in  wages  and  a  rapid 
elevation  of  the  standards  of  life  and  comfort.  These 
evidences  of  progress  are  discussed  in  some  detail  in  the 
last  chapter.  At  this  point  we  desire  to  emphasize  those 
more  unpleasant  characteristics  of  the  present  industrial 
system  which  aggravate  and  intensify  the  labor  problem. 

To  work  successfully  to-day  in  most  lines  of  industry, 
men  must  own  or  control  a  large  capital,  which  is  usually 
embodied  in  extensive,  complex  mechanical  plants,  and 
the  plan  under  which  production  is  carried  on  within  these 
plants  is  usually  called  "the  factory  system."  The  fac- 
tory system  itself  is  directly  responsible  in  a  large  degree 
for  many  labor  problems — child  labor,  industrial  acci- 
dents, factory  regulation,  the  unemployment  resulting 
from  the  invention  of  labor  saving  machinery,  and  other 
evils.  It  is  indirectly  responsible,  however,  for  more  and 
sterner  problems  than  these. 

The  great  majority  of  men  do  not  possess  the  abilities 
or  the  opportunities  to  secure  the  large  capital  necessary 
for  the  successful  conduct  of  a  modern  business.  For  the 
masses,  indeed,  it  is  true  and  increasingly  true,  that  once 
a  wage-earner  always  a  wage-earner.  This  permanency 
of  status  makes  the  labor  problem  in  one  respect  a  class 
struggle.  The  laborer  feels  that  he  is  permanently  held 
within  a  class  whose  interests  are,  in  part,  antagonistic  to 
those  of  the  employers  with  whom  he  bargains  and  higgles 
over  wages.  Fortunately  or  unfortunately,  too,  indus- 
try becomes   more   highly    capitalized    as    time   passes, 


6  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

making  it  increasingly  difficult  for  men  to  acquire 
industrial  independence,  and  steadily  reducing  the  pro- 
portionate number  of  those  who  can  set  up  establishments 
of  their  own.  To  some  it  seems  that  the  complexity  of 
industry  has  outrun  human  ability,  leaving  a  smaller  and 
smaller  proportion  of  men  who  are  fitted  to  direct  and 
control.  Others  explain  the  phenomenon  by  asserting 
that,  owing  to  a  mechanical  tendency  towards  centraliza- 
tion of  business,  a  decreasing  proportion  of  men  have  the 
exceptional  means  and  opportunities  to  rise  to  industrial 
independence.  Whatever  the  explanation,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  of  the  fact  that  the  ultimate  control  of  industry 
is  passing  into  relatively  fewer  and  fewer  hands,  with  the 
result  that  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  few  who  do  reach 
the  top  are  so  enormously  swelled  that  they  would 
threaten— if  misused— the  purity  and  stability  of  the 
government  itself.  The  labor  problem  is  thus  intensified 
by  a  grave  social  problem,  arising  from  the  striiiingly 
unequal  distribution  of  wealth. 

These,  then,  are  what  may  be  called  the  fundamental 
factors  of  the  modern  labor  problem,— the  wage  system, 
the  permanent  status  of  the  wage-earning  class,  the  fac- 
tory system— with  all  which  that  implies,— and  the 
extreme  concentration  and  control  of  wealth  in  the  hands 
of  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  population.  It  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  keep  these  fundamental  conditions 
^  firmly  in  mind ;  but  it  is  just  as  necessary  to  remember 
that,  permanent  as  such  institutions  may  seem,  they  are 
but  steps  or  stages  in  a  centuried  process  of  evolution, 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  GENESIS  7 

whose  past  unfolding  is  as  profoundly  significant  as  its 
future  course  is  fascinating  and  mysterious.  Let  us 
glance  briefly  at  the  genesis  of  the  wage  system  and 
modern  capitalism,  the  two  pillars  of  the  present  indus- 
trial system. 

Almost  the  first  laboring  class  that  historical  records 
disclose  was  composed  of  slaves.  In  the  development  of 
human  society  from  savagery  to  civilization  there  came 
a  time  when  a  comparatively  sedentary  agricultural  life 
suggested  a  possible  economy  in  the  disposition  of  cap- 
tives, by  the  substitution  of  slavery  for  slaughter  and 
cannibalism.  Thus  it  happens  that  in  all  the  great  mili- 
tant nations  of  the  world,  the  laboring  popidation  has 
passed  through  the  stages  of  slavery  and  serfdom.  At 
Athens,  for  instance,  in  309  B.  C. — though  the  statistics 
have  been  questioned  by  some  authorities — we  are  told 
that  there  were  400,000  slaves  in  a  total  population  of 
431,000.  In  ^gina  at  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
according  to  Aristotle,  there  were  470,000  slaves ;  and  a 
little  later,  in  Corinth,  a  citizen  body  of  40,000  owned  and 
controlled  640,000  slaves.  In  Eome,  after  the  second 
century  before  Christ,  the  same  condition  prevailed, — 
"everywhere  the  great  part  of  the  manual  work  in  agri- 
culture, mining,  trade  and  commerce  was  performed  by 
slaves;"— the  institution  of  slavery  was  entrenched 
among  the  barbarian  conquerors  of  Rome;  and  in  Eng- 
land it  lingered  until  about  a  century  after  the  Norman 
invasion. 

Slavery  slowly  softened   into  serfdom,   and  serfdom 


8  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

into  the  wage  system.  The  last  serf  did  not  disappear 
from  England  until  the  eighteenth  century,  and  in  other 
countries  of  the  world  serfdom  lasted  well  into  the  nine- 
teenth century.  We  need  not  linger  over  these  facts. 
The  point  which  concerns  us  is  why  serfdom  was  replaced 
by  the  wage  system. 

Three  causes  stand  out  preeminent.  In  the  first  place, 
bondage  is  repugnant  to  the  deepest  instincts  and  highest 
ideals  of  the  human  race.  The  simple,  animal  instinct 
for  freedom  must  have  played  an  important  part,  aided 
as  it  was  by  the  better  teachings  of  the  church  and  the 
common  law,  whose  leaning,  in  England  at  least,  was  al- 
ways toward  the  side  of  liberty.  Secondly,  bondage  as  a 
system  became  socially  wasteful  and  uneconomic.  Free- 
dom gave  fuller  play  to  the  incentive  of  self-interest. 
Thirdly,  it  became  profitable  for  the  people  who  owned 
the  land  to  which  the  serfs  were  bound,  to  commute  the 
old  personal  services  into  money  dues, — to  divest  them- 
selves of  the  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  their  vassals, 
while  retaining  a  money  equivalent  for  the  old  feudal 
obligations.  Serfdom,  then,  passed  away  because  it  was 
at  once  inequitable  and  uneconomic. 

The  modern  system  of  capitalization  is  often  explained 
as  a  direct  and  immediate  result  of  the  industrial  revolu- 
tion of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  main  features  of  which 
are  now  so  generally  understood  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
recite  them  here.  This  explanation  is  substantially 
correct,  provided  we  do  not  misconstrue  the  nature  of  the 
industrial  revolution  itself.     Many  accounts  of  the  in- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  GENESIS     9 

dustrial  revolution  grreatly  exaggerate  the  suddenness  of 
the  changes  which  characterized  it,  and  give  the  impres- 
sion that  some  mysterious  stirring  of  the  human  mind 
caused  a  meteoric  burst  of  new  discoveries  and  inventions, 
from  which  flowed,  as  immediate  results,  the  factory  sys- 
tem, modern  capitalism,  and  the  separation  of  classes, 
with  all  their  consequences  and  accompaniments.  This 
interpretation  disguises  the  real  nature  of  the  industrial 
revolution  and  of  the  modern  labor  problem,  both  of 
which  are  perfectly  natural  and  logical  results  of 
economic  progress  and  of  the  ceaseless  effort  to  make  more 
and  better  things  at  a  lower  cost.  In  order  to  emphasize 
this  familiar,  but  very  important  truth,  let  us  note  in  bare 
outlines  the  development  of  mechanical  industry  from  the 
introduction  of  the  wage  system  to  the  period  of  the 
industrial  revolution. 

As  the  feudal  system  disintegrated,  industry  passed 
from  the  manors  to  the  free  cities  and  chartered  towns, 
where  the  escaped  serf  who  eluded  his  master  for  a  year 
and  a  day  became  free,  and  where  trade  and  industry 
were  regulated  by  the  gilds.  Industry  under  the  gild 
system  was  at  first  simple  and  paternalistic.  The  mas- 
ter or  manufacturer  worked  in  his  own  home,  assisted  by 
a  few  apprentice;^  who  moved  in  their  employer's  family 
on  terms  of  equality,  and  might  reasonably  hope  some  day 
to  marry  into  that  family  and  so  succeed  to  the  business, 
or  in  other  ways  to  acquire  independent  establishments  of 
their  own.  The  authorities  are  singularly  unanimous  in 
agreeing  that  in  the  beginning  the  craft  gilds  were  bene- 


10  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ficial,  not  only  to  industry  and  the  laborer,  but  to  the  con- 
sumer as  well.  They  were  monopolies  and  no  man  could 
practice  a  trade  in  a  city  who  was  not  a  member  of  the 
gild  which  regulated  that  trade ;  but  they  prevented  con- 
flicts of  interest,  guaranteed  the  quality  of  goods,  stimu- 
lated the  organization  and  division  of  labor,  trained 
skilled  workmen,  regulated  apprenticeship,  and  bestowed 
upon  the  artisans  the  military  system  demanded  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  time.  Moreover,  their  tone  w^as  dis- 
tinctly moral  and  educational,  Avhile  they  served  as  the 
great  benefit  societies  of  the  middle  ages,  lessening  pau- 
perism, promoting  thrift,  and  cultivating  in  their  mem- 
bers the  qualities  of  good  workmanship  and  active  citi- 
zenship. 

As  time  passed,  however,  the  gilds  became  close  corpo- 
rations, jealous  of  their  rights  and  privileges.  Member- 
ship and  mastership  both  became  hereditary ;  the  dues 
were  raised;  production  was  limited  to  keep  up  prices; 
and  onerous  regulations  were  introduced,  which  hindered 
the  march  of  progress  in  production  and  exchange. 
After  the  gilds  became  more  aristocratic,  too,  the  old 
transition  from  apprenticeship  to  journeymanship,  and 
from  journeymanship  to  mastership,  which  in  the  begin- 
ning had  been  easy  and  practically  universal,  became 
exceedingly  difficult.  A  class  of  permanent  journeymen 
was  created,  which  became  large  and  relatively  numerous 
in  western  Europe  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  With  its  appearance  the  forces  antagonistic 
to  the  gild  began  to  obtain  the  mastery.     In  1680  the 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  GENESIS  H 

author  of  Britannia  Languens  records  that  "most  of  our 
ancient  corporations  and  gilds  (have)  become  oppressive 
oligarchies,"^  and  a  few  years  later  in  England  their 
influence  was  at  an  end ;  though  on  the  continent  the  gild 
retained  its  importance  until  the  nineteenth  century, 
while  in  Germany  and  Austria  it  has  in  recent  years  been 
revived. 

It  is  plain  that  the  separation  of  the  capitalistic  and 
wage-earning  classes  was  due  in  part  to  the  desire,  appar- 
ently ineradicable  from  the  human  mind,  to  maintain  a 
social  superiority,  once  gained,  by  the  erection  of  class 
barriers.  When  a  few  of  the  mastercraftsmen  had 
accumulated  fortunes,  they  began  to  ape  the  manners  of 
the  landed  aristocracy,  conceived  the  ambition  of  found- 
ing families,  and  began  to  marry  chiefly  within  their  own 
or  a  higher  class.  In  the  gilds  the  richer  and  more  power- 
ful masters  separated  themselves  into  a  distinct  class, 
while  the  gild  government  came  under  the  control  of  a 
still  smaller  group,  the  "Court  of  Assistants,"  whose 
regulation  of  industry  became  monopolistic,  avaricious 
and  harsh.  Excessive  fines  or  entrance  fees  were  required 
upon  the  admission  of  apprentices  into  the  mastership, 
the  period  of  apprenticeship  was  excessively  lengthened, 
and  the  custom  sprang  up  of  requiring  apprentices  to  take 
oath  that  they  would  not  set  up  competing  establishments 
without  the  masters'  permission,  a  practice  that  in  Eng- 
land was  prohibited  by  Parliament  in  1536. 

1  Quoted  by  Hibbeit,  Influence  and  Development  of  English  Gilds, 
p.  103. 


12  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

This  innate  tendency  to  class  seclusion  must  undoubt- 
edly be  numbered  among  the  causes  which  explain  the 
appearance  of  capitalism  and  the  segregation  of  a  class 
of  permanent  wage-earners.  A  far  more  potent  cause, 
however,  is  found  in  the  great  economies  effected  by  pro- 
duction on  a  large  scale.  A  man  working  with  a  tool  is 
much  more  productive  than  a  man  without  any  mechan- 
ical assistance,  and  a  man  aided  by  many  and  costly  tools 
is  immeasurably  superior  to  the  man  with  one.  The  supe- 
riority conferred  by  the  possession  of  capital  tends  to 
grow  and  increase ;  its  advantages  are  cumulative. 

Whatever  the  explanation  of  the  appearance  of  a 
capitalistic  class,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  its  existence 
long  before  the  industrial  revolution.  On  the  continent 
a  class  of  wealthy  entrepreneurs — the  merchant  clothiers 
— appeared  in  the  woolen  industry  as  early  as  the  thir- 
teenth century;  and  in  certain  parts  of  England  that 
industry  had  passed  beyond  the  domestic  stage  as  early, 
at  least,  as  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Re- 
ferring to  the  new  system  in  England  Mr.  Cooke  Taylor 
tells  us  in  his  Modern  Factory  System  (page  48)  that 
"the  increase  of  machinery  employed  under  it  had 
already  become  so  alarming  by  the  time  of  Edward  VI, 
that  a  statute  (50  and  60  Ed.  VI)  was  passed  in  that 
reign  regulating  its  use,  while  long  before,  and  even  by 
the  end  of  Henry  VII 's  reign,  a  class  of  great  capitalists 
had  arisen,  using  its  methods  on  a  very  large  scale 
indeed. ' ' 

The  industrial  revolution  was  not  a  cataclysm  of  me* 


THE   LABOR  PROBLEM   AND   ITS   GENESIS  13 

chanical  inventions  and  social  transformations.  Nat  lira 
non  facit  saltum.  It  came  gradually.  Thoughtful  men 
were  expecting  it.  The  way  was  prepared  for  it.  It  was 
understood  that  industry  was  on  the  eve  of  great  develop- 
ments and  that  improvements  in  production  were  im- 
peratively demanded.  The  possibilities  of  steam  as  a  mo- 
tive power  in  industry  were  well  understood  many  years 
before  James  Watt  patented  a  workable  engine  in  1769. 
Many  of  the  inventions  which  transformed  the  textile  in- 
dustry in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  were 
long  preceded  by  mechanical  devices  which  differed  from 
these  inventions  only  in  so  far  as  they  were  impracticable 
or  costly  of  operation.  The  spirit  of  the  times  is  illus- 
trated by  the  fact  that  the  Royal  Academy,  realizing  the 
handicap  imposed  upon  the  textile  industry  by  the 
excessive  time  required  for  spinning  yarn,  "offered  a 
prize  for  the  invention  of  a  machine  that  would  spin 
several  threads  at  the  same  time."  The  factory  system 
was  not  accidental ;  it  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the 
unceasing  effort  to  reduce  the  cost  of  production.  Pro- 
duction by  machinery,  like  production  on  a  large  scale  in 
general,  came  because  it  was  economical,  uprooting  old 
institutions,  extinguishing  tenacious  customs,  widening 
the  gulf  between  the  masters  and  the  servants,  dislodging 
the  old  landed  aristocracy,  doing  an  infinite  amount  of 
damage  in  an  infinite  number  of  ways,  but  rendering 
possible  in  the  end  a  vastly  greater  production  and  con- 
sumption of  material  wealth. 


14  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

The  genesis  of  the  labor  problem  is  full  of  instruction 
for  the  student  of  that  problem  as  it  now  confronts  us. 
Time  was  when  the  wage  system,  private  property  in  land, 
and  the  industrial  combination  did  not  exist,  and  the 
time  may  come  when  they  shall  no  longer  exist.  No 
social  institution  is  inherently  immortal,  or  above  and 
beyond  the  touch  of  the  iconoclast  or  reformer. 

Nevertheless,  we  may  be  certain  that  every  deep-seated 
social  institution  will  endure  until  a  better  substitute  is 
provided,  capable  of  performing  the  old  function  in  a 
more  economic  way.  The  test  of  the  possible  reform  is  its 
power  of  decreasing  cost  or  augmenting  production.  We 
may  rebel  against  the  materialism  of  this  criterion,  but 
deny  it  we  cannot.  If  economic  history  teaches  one  lesson 
of  indisputable  meaning,  it  is  the  utter  inevitableness 
of  the  method,  machine  or  institution  that  makes  for 
economy.  We  may — indeed,  we  must — ameliorate  its 
temporary  destructiveness,  but  thwart  it  we  cannot.  Such 
is  the  law  of  progress,  and  progress  is  inevitable.  Not 
without  interruption  from  men  and  institutions,  and  not 
without  guidance  at  times  by  combinations  of  men  in 
legislature,  church  and  trade  union,  but  in  its  ultimate 
direction  irresistible  and  irreversible,  the  car  of  industrial 
progress  has  travelled  its  appointed  way,  improving,  en- 
larging, but  always  complicating  the  mechanism  of 
industry,  and  so  ceaselessly  reducing  the  proportion  of 
independent  workers.  Capitalism,  the  separation  of  the 
industrial  classes,  and  the  labor  problem  are  the  products 
of  progress  itself. 


THE   LABOR   PROBLEM   AND   ITS   GENESIS  I5 

It  is  some  comfort  to  reflect  that  our  problems  are  the 
problems  of  progress,  the  growing  pains  of  youth,  and  not 
the  signs  of  approaching  decay.  Of  course,  it  avails  noth- 
ing to  the  man  who  is  thrust  aside  or  maimed  by  the  ca.' 
of  progress,  to  be  told  that  his  suffering  is  a  mere  incident 
in  the  upward  march  of  society.  This  truth,  indeed, 
carries  with  it  a  supplementary  lesson  of  the  gravest 
consequence:  society  must  learn  to  minimize  the  un- 
fortunate incidents  of  progress,  and  systematically 
compensate  those  who  are  injured  literally  for  humanity's 
sake,  because  it  is  just  this  incidental  and  temporary 
destructiveness  of  progress  that  accounts  for  the  gravest 
economic  and  social  evils  of  our  epoch.  Moreover,  society 
must  learn  to  restrain  the  capricious  plunging,  the  un- 
necessary deviations  of  our  figurative  vehicle;  and  as 
invention  crowds  upon  invention,  and  revolutionary 
methods  replace  those  to  which  we  are  accustomed  and  to 
which  we  have  accommodated  ourselves, — in  a  word,  as 
progress  becomes  more  rapid,  social  regulation  must  in- 
crease. No  greater  truth  has  ever  been  enunciated  by  an 
American  economist  than  the  proposition,  so  ably  main- 
tained by  Professor  Henry  C.  Adams  in  his  Relation  of 
the  State  to  Industrial  Action,  that  public  regulation 
must  proceed  pari  passu  with  the  development  of  private 
trade  and  industry.  The  true  ideal  of  society  is  not 
laissez-faire,  but  economic  freedom,  and  freedom  is  the 
child,  not  the  enemy,  of  law  and  regulation. 

References  :  Excellent  bibliographies  upon  labor  and  specific  labor 
problems  may  be  found  in  S.  S.  Whittlesey's  Massachusetts  Lahor  Leg- 
'elation   (1901)  ;  J.  W.   Black's  "  References  on  the  History  of  Labor 


16  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

and  Some  Contemporary  Labor  rroblems,"  Ohrrlin  College  Library  Bul- 
letin, vol.  I,  No.  2  (1893)  ;  Index  of  All  Ueports  Issued  by  Bureaus  of 
Labor  Statisties  in  the  I  nited  States,  published  by  the  (U.  S.)  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  in  1902  ;  Helen  Ma  rot's  Handbook  of  Labor  Literature 
(1899)  ;  and  Josiah  Strong's  t<oeial  Progress  (1904).  A  large  amount 
of  data  on  all  the  problems  treated  in  this  book,  except  the  rise  of  the 
labor  problem,  is  collected  in  Mr.  Bolen's  admirable  work,  Octting  a 
Living.  The  best  sources  of  current  information  are  the  reports  and 
periodical  bulletins  of  the  federal,  state  and  foreign  labor  bureaus, 
particularly  those  of  the  I'nited  States,  New  York,  Massachusetts,  the 
United  Kingdom,  France,  Belgium,  and  the  German  lieiehs-Arbeitsblatt. 
The  most  satisfactory  sources  in  English  concerning  the  genesis  of  the 
labor  problem  are  the  standard  books  upon  English  economic  history, 
such  as  Ashley's  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History  and  Theory: 
Cunningham's  three  volumes  on  The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and 
Commerce ;  Traill's  Social  England;  Hobson's  The  Evolution  of  Modern 
Capitalism  ;  Cheyney's  Industrial  and  Social  History  of  England.  For 
the  economic  history  of  the  United  States  see  McMaster,  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  States;  Brace,  First  Century  of  the  Republic; 
Bruce,  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century: 
Weeden,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England;  Wright,  Indus- 
trial Evolution  of  the  Utiited  States;  and  Ely,  Studies  in  the  Evolution, 
of  Industrial  Society. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Nature  of  the  Labor  Problem  : 

(o)    Levasseur,  The  American  Workman,  "Preface,"  pp.  xi-xx. 

(b)  Brooks,  "The  Social  Question,"  The  Social  Unrest,  ch.  IV, 

pp.  107-143. 

(c)  Ely,  "Survey  of  the  Field,"  The  Labor  Movement  in  Amer- 

ica, ch.  L  PP-  1-6. 

2.  The  Genesis  of  the  Labor  Problem  : 

(o)  James,  "The  Rise  of  the  Modern  Laborer,"  The  Labor 
Movement  (G.  E.  McNeill,  ed.),  ch.  I,  pp.  1-20  (conven- 
ient, but  somewhat  biassed). 

(b)  "History  of  Mechanical  Labor,"  ibid.,  ch.  H,  pp.  21-44. 

(c)  Cheyney,  "The  Period  of  the  Industrial  Evolution."  Indus- 

trial and  Social  History  of  England,  pp.  199-239. 

(d)  Taylor,   "Rise  of  the  Modern   Factory   System,"   The  Mod- 

ern Factory  System,  ch.  II.  pp.  44-(50i. 

(e)  Toynbee,    "Condition   of   English   Wage   Earners   in    1760," 

The  Industrial  Revolution,  ch.  VI,  pp.  67-72. 

(f)  Ely,   "Rise  of  the  Problem   in  America,"  The  Labor  Move- 

ment in  America,  pp.  34-00. 
ig)  Brooks,  ibid.,  "Tbe  Social  Unrest,"  ch.  Ill,  pp.  68-106. 


BOOK  I 

EVILS 


CHAPTER  II 

WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR 

Out  of  the  industrial  revolution  and  the  transition  from 
domestic  to  factory  industry  arose,  as  one  of  the  earliest 
and  most  serious  evils  of  the  modern  wage  system,  the 
problem  of  woman  and  child  labor.  With  the  changes  in 
methods  of  production  which  removed  the  traditional 
occupations  of  women  from  the  home,  they  themselves 
were  forced  into  wage  labor  in  factories,  while  with  the 
introduction  of  light  running  machinery  young  children 
were  put  to  productive  and  profitable  use. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  apparent  increase 
in  laboring  women  is  largely  a  matter  of  adjustment  to 
changed  industrial  conditions.  Women  are  to  a  great 
extent  supplying  the  same  needs  that  they  have  always 
supplied,  but  they  are  now  receiving  wages  and  are  work- 
ing outside  of  the  home.  There  is,  however,  a  certain 
amount  of  true  enlargement  of  woman's  sphere  of  ac- 
tivity, due  to  the  increased  productivity  of  machinery  and 
to  the  fact  that  many  of  her  previous  occupations  were 
those  in  which  human  wants  are  least  capable  of  expan- 
sion—the satisfaction  of  the  common  needs  of  physical 
existence.  The  oversupply  of  women  in  their  traditional 
lines  of  activity  has  forced  many  of  them  into  other 

19 


20  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

occupations,  often  in  competition  with  men.  This  com- 
petition is  the  economic  evil  of  woman's  labor,  while  the 
social  evil  is  the  effect  upon  the  women  themselves  and 
upon  the  home,  (Both  evils  are  relativel 
.Child  labor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  generally  acknowl- 
edged to  be  an  irreparable  injury  to  the  children  and  to 
society  at  large.  Bodies  and  minds  are  stunted  and 
deformed;  crime,  violence  and  all  of  the  social  evils 
which  spring  from  a  brutalized  population  are  fostered ; 
and  the  total  industrial  efficiency  of  the  individual  is 
immeasurably  lessened. 

1.  Historic  Conditions  and  Development  of  Legisla- 
tion in  England:  Though  the  labor  of  women  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  that  of  children,  was  utilized  under  the 
domestic  system,  it  was  the  introduction  of  labor  saving 
machinery,  the  improvements  in  methods  of  production, 
and  the  development  of  commerce  characteristic  of  the 
nineteenth  century  that  produced  the  distinctive  evils  of 
which  complaint  is  now  made. 

In  the  early  factories  and  mines  of  England  these  evils, 
— long  hours,  insufficient  wages,  over-exertion,  lack  of 
opportunities  for  education,  forced  neglect  of  home 
duties,  and  many  others,— attained  probably  their  great- 
est intensity,  though  affecting  only  a  small  number  of 
women  and  children  as  compared  with  the  modern  army. 
There  is  abundant  testimony,  however,  to  the  terrible 
conditions,  physical,  mental  and  moral,  which  prevailed, 
and  harrowing  details  are  heaped  up  in  English  blue 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  21 

books.*  "The  beginning  of  the  present  century 
found  children  of  five,  and  even  of  three  years  of  age,  in 
England,  working  in  factories  and  brick-yards;  women 
working  underground  in  mines,  harnessed  with  mules  to 
carts,  drawing  heavy  loads ;  found  the  hours  of  labor 
whatever  the  avarice  of  individual  mill-owners  might 
exact,  were  it  thirteen,  or  fourteen,  or  fifteen;  found  no 
guards  about  machinery  to  protect  life  and  limb ;  found 
the  air  of  the  factory  fouler  than  language  can  describe, 
even  could  human  ears  bear  to  hear  the  story. '  '^ 

The  first  form  under  which  the  evils  of  child  labor 
became  so  serious  as  to  inspire  legislative  restriction  was 
pauper    apprenticeship.     Agreements    were    made    be- 
tween  the   manufacturers   and   the   parish  workhouses 
whereby  many  thousands  of  children  were  sent  to  the 
factory  towns  to  become  practically  slaves.     A.  little  later 
**a  horrible  traffic  had  sprung  up;  child- jobbers  secured   \ 
the  country  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  children  to  sell     I 
them  again  into  the  bondage  of  factory  slaves.     The  / 
waste  of  human  life  in  the  manufactories  to  which  me 
children  were  consigned  was  simply  frightful.     Day  aim\ 
night  the  machinery  was  kept  going ;  one  gang  of  children 
working  it  by  day,  and  another  set  by  night,  while,  in 
times  of  pressure,  the  same  children  were  kept  working 

*  For  further  particulars  of  th«  early  nineteenth  century  conditions 
of  woman  and  child  labor  In  England,  and  of  the  legislation  enacted 
to  meet  these  conditions,  the  reader  is  referred  to :  Engels,  Condition 
of  the  Working  Class  in  Enpland  in  IS!,',,  pp.  141-177,  188-211,  241-251  ; 
Marx    Capital,  pp.  241-248,  263-284.  .391  400,  466-512,  715-718,  783-788. 

*  Walker,  Political  Economy,  p.  381. 


22  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

day  and  night  by  remorseless  tcsk-masters.  "*  It  was  for 
these  pauper  apprentices  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  procured 
the  legislation  of  1802,  providing  that  twelve  hours 
should  constitute  a  daj'^'s  labor. 

Gradually,  as  the  factory  system  developed,  appren- 
ticeship was  crowded  out.  Steam  was  substituted  for 
water  power ;  factories  were  built  in  cities ;  and  machinery 
was  constructed  upon  a  larger  scale.  More  work  was 
found,  then,  for  women  and  for  "young  persons,"  as 
children  above  the  minimum  age  limit  are  called  in  Eng- 
lish law,  and  there  gradually  arose  a  new  phase  of  child 
labor,  the  wage-labor  of  children  who  lived  at  home  and 
to  whom  the  Act  of  1802  was  wholly  inapplicable. 

In  1816  a  physician  testified  before  the  Select  Com- 
mittee, appointed  to  investigate  the  question  of  the 
employment  of  children,  that  of  about  twentj^-three 
thousand  factory  hands  examined  by  him  fourteen 
thousand  were  under  the  age  of  eighteen.  Children  of 
six  were  commonly  found  in  all  the  factories,  while  even 
younger  infants  were  sometimes  employed.  For  these 
children  twelve  hours  was  a  short  day 's  labor,  fifteen  was 
not  uncommon  and  sometimes  they  were  obliged  to  work 
for  sixteen  hours  a  day.  The  disclosures  of  this  com- 
mittee led  to  the  passage  of  the  Acts  of  1819,  1825  and 
1831.  the  first  two  of  which  were  never  enforced  and  the 
last  only  here  and  there.  The  Act  of  1819  forbade  the 
employment  of  children  under  nine  and  limited  the  hours 


*  Hodder,  The  Life  and  Work  of  the  Seventh    Earl   of   Shafteabury, 
p.  76. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  23 

of  those  between  nine  and  sixteen  to  twelve  pei*  day; 
that  of  1825  made  a  partial  holiday  on  Saturday  com- 
pulsory for  children;  that  of  1831  forbade  night  work 
to  all  under  twenty-one,  and  raised  the  age  from  sixteen 
to  eighteen  of  those  whose  hours  were  limited,  at  the  same 
time  lowering  their  day's  work  from  twelve  to  eleven 
hours. 

Another  investigation,  secured  by  the  efforts  of  Lord 
/Shaftesbury  in  1833,  showed  that  conditions  were  little 
/  improved  in  the  cotton  mills,  while  the  same  abuses  had 
^spread  to  other  industries,  involving  many  thousands  of 
(^hildren.  This  report,  which  fairly  bristles  with  the 
most  revolting  cases  of  extreme  cruelty  and  hardship, 
resulted  in  the  Act  of  1833,  a  compromise  measure,  the 
two  chief  features  of  which  were  the  provisions  for  fac- 
tory inspection  and  for  school  attendance. 

In  1842  a  Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
employment  of  children  in  mines  and  collieries  reported 
that  one-third  of  all  the  employees  in  the  coal  mines  of 
England  were  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  that  of 
these  much  more  than  half  were  under  thirteen.  The 
census  of  1841  showed  that  about  six  thousand  women, 
half  of  them  under  twenty,  were  employed  in  mines  in 
Great  Britain  alone.  The  result  of  this  report  was  the 
passage  in  1842  of  the  Mines  and  Collieries  Bill,  which 
prohibited  the  employment  in  underground  mines  of 
women  and  of  children  under  ten  years  of  age. 

Meanwhile  a  vigorous  agitation  was  going  forward  for 
the  restriction  of  the  hours  of  labor  of  women  and  chil* 


24  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

dren  to  ten  per  day,  and  in  1544  this  resulted  in  a  com. 
promise  measure  which  limited  the  hours  to  eleven  per 
day  and  placed  women  over  eighteen  for  the  first  time  in 
the  restricted  class.  Another  important  provision  was 
that  which  required  of  children  under  thirteen  a  half 
day's  school  attendance,  limiting  their  hours  to  six  and  a 
half. 

Finally,  in  1848,  the  Ten  Hours  Bill  was  passed,  limit- 
ing the  working  hours  of  children  under  thirteen  to  five 
a  day,  and  of  all  women  and  "young  persons"  under 
eighteen  to  ten  a  day.  This  act  may  be  considered  as  the 
basis  of  modern  legislation  upon  the  subject  of  woman 
and  child  labor,  and  it  was  followed  by  various  provisions 
improving  the  means  of  enforcement,  bringing  new 
industries  wuthin  its  scope,  Adding  sanitary  regulations, 
and  in  other  ways  aiming  to  secure  for  women  and  chil- 
dren more  favorable  conditions  of  labor. 

In  1878  all  previous  legislation  was  consolidated  into 
one  great  factory  act,  which  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
stood  as  the  model  factory  law  of  the  world.  On  Jan- 
uary 1,  1902,  however,  a  new  and  yet  more  complete 
factory  code,  which  raised  the  minimum  age  from  eleven 
to  twelve  years,  went  into  effect. 

2.  Rise  of  the  Problem  in  the  United  States:  Al- 
though, in  the  United  States,  the  problem  of  woman  and 
child  labor  arose  from  much  the  same  causes  and  followed 
much  the  same  line  of  development  as  in  England,  it 
presented,  from  the  first,  certain  important  differences. 
First,  there  has  practically  never  been  in  the  United 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  25 

States  the  pauper  apprentice  problem ;  second,  women 
and  girls  have  never  been  employed  in  mines ;  third,  the 
United  States  has  profited  to  a  certain  extent  from  the 
experience  of  England  with  reference  to  the  building 
and  arrangement  of  factories;  fourth,  certain  industries 
which  in  England  have  given  employment  to  large  num- 
bers of  children  have  never  flourished  in  this  country, 
e.  g.,  chimney  sweeping  and  the  manufacture  of  lace; 
fifth,  the  wages  of  women  have  always  been  higher  in  thia 
country  than  in  England,  owing  to  the  same  causes  that 
have  made  the  wages  of  men  higher ;  sixth,  legislation  has 
been  enacted  here  at  a  comparatively  early  stage  in  the 
development  of  the  system. 

In  some  places  in  the  United  States  early  conditions 
of  factory  labor  have  been  described  as  almost  idyllic. 
At  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  the  daughters  of  the  farmers 
from  round  about  were  induced  to  enter  the  factories 
only  by  the  special  bait  of  good  wages,  city  advantages 
and  intellectual  life.  There  were  no  social  distinctions. 
Plants  grew  in  the  factory  windows,  and  everything  was 
clean  and  comfortable.  Wages  were  high  and  the  girls 
frequently  had  large  bank  accounts.  Nevertheless,  the 
hours  of  labor  were  twelve  a  day. 

Conditions  in  other  states  were  from  the  first,  however, 
entirely  different  from  those  in  New  England,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  the  tide  of  immigration,  which  had  early 
\  reduced  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  to  the 
status  of  English  factory  towns,  began  to  lower  the  stand- 
ards even  in  conservative  Massachusetts.     As  a  result, 


26  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

by  1S79,  in  that  state,  little  children  from  eight  to  eleven 
years  old  were  put  to  work,  and  the  hours  ranged  from 
eleven  to  fourteen  a  day. 

\  Wherever  the  foreign  element  penetrated,  the  need  of 
exceptional  wages  and  treatment  in  order  to  secure 
"hands"  disappeared,  and  with  the  increased  efficiency 
of  the  means  of  transportation  and  communication  con- 
ditions everywhere  tended  rapidly  to  equalize  themselves. 
The  Civil  War,  moreover,  threw  thousands  of  women  upon 
their  own  resources;  they  w^ere  obliged  to  compete  Avith 
men ;  and  the  result  was  the  permanent  opening  up  to  the 
sex  of  many  new  fields  of  emploj^ment. 

Within  comparatively  recent  years  the  numbers  and 
the  proportions  of  both  w^omen  and  children  gainfully 
employed  have  increased  decidedly,  as  is  shown  by  the 
Occupation  figures  in  the  United  States  Census  Reports. 
;  In  1880  the  total  number  of  females  10  years  of  age  and 
over  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  was  2,647,157,  while 
in  1900  it  was  5,319,397,  or  more  than  double  the  former 
figures.  The  proportion  gainfully  employed  to  the  total 
female  population  meanwhile  increased  from  14.7  per 
cent,  in  1880  to  17.4  per  cent,  in  1890  and  to  18.8  per  cent 
in  1900.  This  increase  was  general  throughout  all  the  divi- 
sions of  the  United  States,  but  was  evidently  not  as  marked 
between  1890  and  1900  as  during  the  previous  decade. 

Though  the  statistics  of  child  laborers  in  1890  were  so 
seriously  defective  as  to  be  wholly  invalidated,*  the  gen- 


•  For   CTidence  of  this  fnrt  see  the   Twelfth   Ccnsui  of  the  VtUteA 
States,  Gccupationt,  pp.  Ixvi-lxxil. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  27 

eral  movement  can  be  satisfactorily  ascertained  by 
comparing  the  figures  for  1900  with  those  for  1880.  At 
the  latter  date  1,118,356  children  from  10  to  15  years  of 
age,  or  16.8  per  cent,  of  all  in  that  age  group,  were  en- 
gaged in  gainful  occupations,  while  in  1900  1,750,178 
children,  or  18.2  per  cent,  of  the  same  age  group,  were 
gainfully  employed.  The  proportions  for  female  chil- 
dren were  much  lower  in  both  decades,  being  9.0  per  cent, 
in  1880  and  10.2  per  cent,  in  1900,  but  the  proportions 
for  male  children  were  much  higher  and  showed  a  com- 
paratively rapid  rate  of  increase,  rising  from  24.4  per 
cent,  in  1880  to  26.1  per  cent,  in  1900.  Child  labor, 
however,  has  not  increased  so  rapidly  as  woman  labor, 
and  the  movement  is  not  so  uniform  through  the  different 
geographical  divisions,  though  increased  proportions  are 
shown  for  each  sex  in  all  the  divisions  except  the  South 
Central,  in  which  the  proportion  for  female  children  was 
slightly  smaller  in  1900  than  in  1880. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  proportion  ^vhich  children 
form  of  the  total  number  of  gainful  workers  there  has 
been  a  slight  decrease  during  the  twenty  years,  due  en- 
tirely to  a  movement  among  the  boys,  as  is  shown  in  the 
table  on  the  next  page,  which  gives  for  the  United  States, 
the  distribution,  as  men,  women,  and  children,  of  persons 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations  in  1880  and  1900 . 

There  is  evidently  a  marked  advance  in  the  relative 
importance  of  women  in  the  industrial  field,  and  a  slight 
decrease  in  the  relative  importance  of  children.  The 
iacrease,  moreover,  in  the  proportion  of  women  iu  gainful 


28  LABOR  PROBI.EMS 

Distribution  of  Breadwinners 


CLASS 

1900 

1880 

Number 

Per  cent. 

Number 

Per  cent. 

Total 

29,073,233 

22,489,425 

4,833,630 

1,750,178 

1,264,411 

485,767 

100.0 

77.3 

16.6 

6.1 

4.4 

1.7 

17,392,099 

13,919,755 

2,353,988 

1.118,356 

825,187 

293,169 

100.0 
80.0     ' 
13.5 

6.5 

4.8 

1.7 

Men 

Women 

Children 

Boys 

Girls 

occupations  is  common  to  all  sections  of  the  country,  while 
the  decrease  in  the  proportion  of  children  appears  in 
every  division  except  the  Western,  where  the  percentages 
are  very  small. 

The  proportions  of  women  and  of  children  to  men  in  the 
gainfully  employed  population  differ  considerably  in  the 
various  geographical  divisions,  but  this  difference  is  not 
the  same  for  both.  The  North  and  South  Atlantic  divi- 
sions, for  instance,  showed  in  1900  the  largest  proportions 
of  women  16  years  of  age  and  over,  20.2  and  19.3  per  ccBt. 
respectively.  In  the  North  Atlantic  division,  however, 
only  3.6  per  cent,  of  the  gainful  workers  were  children, 
while  in  the  South  Atlantic  division  11.2  per  cent,  were 
from  10  to  15  years  of  age.  The  proportion  of  children 
is  even  higher,  11.5  per  cent.,  in  the  South  Central  divi- 
sion, where  the  proportion  of  women  is  only  15.7  per  cent. 
The  North  Central  and  Western  divisions  show  the 
largest  proportion  of  men,  and  the  smallest  of  women. 
The  smallest  proportion  of  children  is  found  in  the  West- 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  29 

ern  division,  but  in  the  North  Central  division  there  is 
employed  a  larger  proportion  of  children,  3.8  per  cent., 
than  in  the  North  Atlantic  division.  Evidently  the 
Atlantic  states  employ  the  largest  proportion  of  women 
as  compared  with  men,  and  the  Southern  states  the  largest 
proportion  of  children  as  compared  with  both  men  and 
women,  while  in  the  Western  states  woman  and  child 
labor  are  both  of  relatively  small  importance.  By  states 
and  territories  the  employment  of  women  ranged  in  1900 
from  31.8  per  cent,  in  the  District  of  Columbia  to  6.6  per 
cent,  in  Wyoming,  and  the  employment  of  children  from 
16.6  per  cent,  in  South  Carolina  to  1,0  per  cent,  in 
Montana. 

The  conclusions  to  be  drawn  are:  (a)  that  the  number 
of  female  breadwinners  is  increasing  faster  than  the 
number  of  male  breadwinners,  and  much  faster  than  the 
adult  female  population;  (b)  that  the  number  of  gain- 
fully employed  children,  though  it  does  not  increase  quite 
as  rapidly  as  the  number  of  gainful  workers  of  all  ages, 
has  still  grown  faster  than  the  total  population  10  to  15 
years  of  age ;  (c)  that,  to  a  certain  extent  at  least,  women 
may  be  said  to  have  displaced  both  children  and  men  in 
gainful  occupations;  (d)  that  the  largest  proportions  of 
women  as  compared  with  men  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions are  found  in  the  two  Atlantic  divisions,  though  the 
largest  numbers  are  found  in  the  North  Atlantic  and  the 
North  Central  divisions;  and  (e)  that  the  largest  propor- 
tions of  children  as  compared  with  adults,  and  also  the 


30  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

largest  numbers,  engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  are 
found  in  the  two  Southern  divisions.^ 

3.  Legislation  in  the  United  States:  As  in  England 
so  in  the  United  States  it  has  gradually  come  to  be  recog- 
nized that  the  moral  and  physical  well-being  of  the 
community  demands  the  legal  restriction  of  woman  and 
child  labor,  and  nearly  every  state  in  the  union  has  upon 
its  statute  books  some  form  of  legislation  upon  this  sub- 
ject.- The  laws  affecting  children  rest  upon  the  parental 
relation  of  the  state  and,  as  the  child  is  not  supposed  to  be 
capable  of  entering  into  a  free  contract,  their  constitution- 
ality is  unquestioned.  The  legislation  upon  the  subject 
of  woman  labor,  on  the  other  hand,  rests  upon  the  police 
power  of  the  state,  and  its  constitutionality  has  been 
attacked  upon  the  double  ground  that  it  is  class  legislation 
and  denies  the  right  of  free  contract.  These  laws  relate, 
in  general,  (a)  to  the  age  limit  below  which  employment 
is  illegal,  (b)  to  the  hours  of  labor  of  both  women  and 
children,  and  (c)  to  the  question  of  education.  The 
requirement  that  seats  shall  be  provided  for  women  em- 
ployed in  manufacturing,  mechanical  and  mercantile 
establishments  is  also  general. 

The  age  limit  varies  from  ten  to  fourteen  years,  and  a 
still  greater  variation  is  shown  in  the  industries  to  which 
this  compulsory   age   limit  applies.     There  is  no  state 

'  StatlBtlcs  concerning  the  number  and  proportion  of  young  persons. 
16  to  20  years  of  age,  are  also  given  in  the  Twelfth  Census,  Occupa- 
tions, pp.  rxxxix-cxilli. 

s  Appendix  A  contains  a  table  of  woman  and  child  labor  laws  in  force 
May  1,  1904.  For  a  brief  summary  of  the  legislation  relating  to  child 
labor,  see  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  52,  pp.  558-569. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  31 

which  establishes  a  compulsory  age  limit  for  all  occupa- 
tions at  all  times,  though  a  number  of  states  pro\nde  that 
children  below  a  certain  age  shall  not  be  employed  at  any 
occupation  during  school  hours  or  without  a  certificate 
of  school  attendance.  Very  frequently,  also,  laws  di- 
rected against  the  employment  of  children  in  circuses, 
acrobatic  performances,  street  dancing,  etc.,  are  made  so 
general  as  to  include  all  occupations  dangerous  to  the 
health  or  morals  of  children.  This  provision,  however, 
has  never  been  so  strictly  enforced  as  to  be  of  great  value. 
In  many  cases  the  age  limit  applies  merely  to  children  in 
factories,  though  sometimes  it  is  made  applicable  to  chil- 
dren in  laundries,  telegraph  and  telephone  offices, 
messenger  service  and  other  lines  of  work.  In  Boston, 
New  York  and  Buff'alo  the  work  of  children  in  streets  and 
public  places  is  regulated  by  recent  laws  applying  par- 
ticularly to  newsboys,  but  in  Boston  also  to  bootblacks 
and  children  selling  other  articles  than  newspapers. 

The  regulation  of  the  hour>5  of  children  is  somewhat 
more  common  than  of  the  hours  of  women^  owing  to  the 
recent  tendency  to  consider  any  interference  with  the 
hours  of  women,  except  in  the  absence  of  contract,  as 
unconstitutional.  Although  such  regulation  has  been 
sustained  in  Massachusetts,  "the  constitutionality  of 
making  discriminations  between  men  and  women  in  this 
regard  was  not  specifically  discussed  by  the  court,  and  the 
language  of  the  decision  was  broad  enough  to  apply  to  all 
persons,  both  men  and  women.  "^     An  Illinois  statute, 

^Industrial  Commission,  XIX,  p.  929. 


32  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

however,  was  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  that  state,  first,  as  denying  women  the  right  to 
contract,  and  second,  as  class  legislation.  Though  for  a 
time  it  seemed  probable  that  the  Illinois  decision  would 
prevail,  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  in  its  decision 
in  the  case  of  Holden  vs.  Hardy,  upholding  the  Utah  law 
limiting  the  hours  of  all  employees  in  mines  and  smelters 
to  eight  per  day,  turned  the  current  of  opinion,  and  the 
Supreme  Courts  of  both  Nebraska  and  Washington  have 
recently  upheld  laws  limiting  the  hours  of  women. 
Though  the  theory  that  women,  like  children,  are  under 
the  special  protection  of  the  state  iy  gradually  yielding 
to  a  more  liberal  idea  of  the  economic  and  civil  position  of 
women,  such  laws  are  likely  to  be  generally  upheld  in  the 
future  upon  the  ground  that  they  are  necessary  health 
regulations. 

The  educational  provisions  may  be  divided  into  two 
classes,  the  general  compulsory  education  laws,  and  those 
provisions  of  child  labor  legislation  which  make  a  certain 
amount  of  knowledge,  or  at  least  of  instruction,  a  pre- 
requisite to  employment.  The  compulsory  education 
laws,  if  properly  enforced,  might  effectively  supplement 
the  child  labor  laws,  though  they  are  frequently  weakened 
for  this  purpose  by  the  fact  that  their  maximum  age  limit 
is  not  the  same  as  the  minimum  age  limit  of  employment. 

Compulsory  education  is  the  rule  in  the  North,  but  the 
exception  in  the  South.  The  educational  provisions  of 
the  child  labor  laws  either  require  of  all  children  under  a 
certain  age,  which  ranges  from  fourteen  to  sixteen,  a 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  33 

certificate  testifying  to  a  specified  number  of  weeks' 
school  attendance  during  the  previous  year,  or  else  they 
simply  assert  that  no  child  under  a  certain  age,  who  can 
not  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in  English,  shall  be 
employed.  The  latter  method  was  designed  to  secure  the 
assimilation  of  immigrant  children,  but  has  proved  most 
useful  as  a  means  w^hereby  the  true  object  of  education 
can  be  more  advantageously  effected  than  by  the  mere 
assurance  that  so  much  time  has  been  spent  within  the 
four  walls  of  a  schoolhouse. 

An  important  part  of  this  legislation  is  the  machinery 
by  which  it  is  enforced.  There  is  generally  incorporated 
in  each  law  one  or  more  of  the  following  provisions:  (a) 
for  affidavits  of  age,  (b)  for  school  certificates,  (c)  for 
medical  certificates  of  physical  fitness  for  the  work,  (d) 
for  posting  of  working  hours  in  all  rooms  where  children 
or  women  are  employed,  and  (e)  for  keeping  on  file  or 
posted  in  the  room  a  list  of  all  children  under  a  certain 
age  there  employed.  The  affidavits  of  age  are  usually 
required  for  all  under  sixteen  in  order  the  better  to  pre- 
vent the  employment  of  any  below  the  minimum  age  limit 
of  twelve  or  fourteen  j^ears.  These  affidavits  are  usuallj'' 
made  by  the  parents  or  guardians,  though  frequently  it 
is  required  that  the  age  certificate,  as  well  as  the  school 
certificate,  must  come  from  the  school  authorities.  Mas- 
sachusetts and  New  York  have  an  excellent  provision 
under  which  parents  must  supply  some  real  evidence  that 
the  child  is  over  fourteen  years  of  age,  such  as  a  copy  of  a 
birth  or  baptismal  certificate,  or  some  convincing  school 
3 


34  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

record,  and  the  recent  decision,  in  the  Child  Labor  test 
case  in  Avliich  the  Chelsea  Jnte  ^lills  were  defendants, 
holds  the  employer  responsible  even  though  the  child's 
parents  state  its  age  falsely. 

The  one  essential,  however,  for  the  enforcement  of 
•woman  and  child  labor  legislation  is  thorough,  competent 
and  honest  inspection.  ' '  The  serious  effectiveness  of  these 
laws  develops  in  exact  proportion  with  the  inspecting 
power, — with  the  organization,  number  and  qualification 
of  inspectors."^  The  principal  methods  of  inspection 
are:  (a)  by  a  factory  inspection  department,  (b)  by  com- 
missioners of* labor,  and  (c)  by  the  police.  In  certain 
western  states  where  the  need  of  inspection  is  compara- 
tively slight,  the  commissioner  of  labor  has  been  charged 
with  the  duty  of  enforcing  these  laws.  The  separate 
department  of  factory  inspection  was  for  many  years  the 
New  York  method,  though  recently  in  that  state  it  has 
been  placed  under  the  Department  of  Labor.  Factory 
inspection  as  a  branch  of  the  police  department  has  been 
very  successful  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  factory  laws 
are  probably  more  thoroughly  enforced  than  in  any  other 
state,  and  where  children  emploj^ed  without  certificates 
are  rarely  found,  and  most  of  those  found  are  over  14 
years  of  age.-  In  essentials  these  two  methods  do  not 
differ  materially,  however,  as  in  both  eases  the  work  is 
carried  on  by  a  specially  selected  body  of  factory  in- 

"■  Whittlesey,  Annals  of  the  American  Academy,  Vol.  XX,  No.  1,  p. 
241. 

'Bulletin  of  the  (United  f^tatrs)  liurrau  of  Labor,  No.  ."2.  pp.  187- 
488.  For  the  enforcement  of  age  laws  in  otlier  States  see  also  ibiil. 
pp.  488-494. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  35 

spectors  working  under  the  instructions  of  an  officer 
whose  sole  function  is  the  direction  of  this  department. 

One  of  the  glaring  weaknesses  of  the  present  woman 
and  child  labor  legislation  is  its  utter  lack  of  uniformity. 
The  laws  of  the  different  states  range  from  elaborate 
statutes  covering  nearly  every  point  ever  touched  upon 
in  any  country,  as  in  New  York,  Illinois  and  Massachu- 
setts, down  to  the  utter  lack  of  even  the  shadow  of  a  regu- 
lation, as  in  Delaware  and  Georgia.  If  the  character  of 
the  legislation  corresponded  with  the  relative  need  of  each 
state  it  would  not  be  so  objectionable,  but  a  comparison  of 
the  table  of  laws  in  Appendix  A  with  the  census  tables 
showing  the  geographical  distribution  of  working  women 
and  children  proves  that  the  laws  are,  frequently,  fewest 
where  the  need  is  greatest.  Under  present  conditions  the 
stringent  law  of  one  state  is  often  both  a  detriment  to  its 
own  interests  and  a  check  on  legislation  in  other  states 
which  desire  the  benefits  of  a  cheap  form  of  labor. 

Other  defects  lie  in  the  specific  provisions  themselves, 
in  such  absurdly  low  age  limits  as  ten  years,  in  the  lack  of 
regulation  of  street  occupations  and  often  of  stores, 
laundries  and  other  establishments,  and  in  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  twelve  or  sixteen  weeks'  school  attendance. 
Some  states  allow  young  children,  on  account  of  poverty, 
special  permits  to  work,  and  these  privileges  are  not 
only  frequently  abused,  but  they  rest  upon  a  pernicious 
principle.  Other  states  make  the  limitation  of  hours 
inoperative  during  the  last  weeks  of  December,  and  this 
also  is  liable  to  abuse. 


36  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

In  the  South  public  opinion  has  only  recently  been 
aroused,  and  child  labor  legislation  is  still  opposed  at 
every  step.  Though  the  moral  evil  of  child  labor  is  con- 
ceded  by  most  people  in  the  South,  it  is  maintained  that 
the  low  standards  of  the  working  classes,  together  with 
the  recent  rise  of  the  Southern  states  into  the  rank  of 
manufacturing  states,  necessitates  the  employment  of 
children.  Recently,  however,  a  determined  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  opponents  of  the  system  has  secured  legislation 
of  a  mild  character  in  North  and  South  Carolina  and  in 
Alabama,  unaccompanied,  however,  by  any  provision  for 
factory  inspection.  Voluntary  agreements  have  also 
been  formed  to  meet  the  evil.  In  Georgia  the  members  of 
an  association  of  cotton  manufacturers  "have  signed  an 
agreement  to  exclude  from  the  mills  children  under  10 
years  of  age,  and  those  under  12  who  can  not  show  a  cer- 
tificate of  4  months'  attendance  at  school,"  while  before 
the  enactment  of  legislation  in  North  Carolina  nearly  all 
the  mill  owners  had  agreed  to  discontinue  the  employment 
of  children  under  twelve.^ 

The  greatest  weakness  of  this  legislation,  however,  is  the 
difficulty  of  enforcement.  The  number  of  inspectors 
intrusted  with  carrying  out  its  provisions  is  generally 
entirely  inadequate  and  their  powers  are  frequently 
insufficient.  Only  a  few  states  provide  women  fac- 
tory inspectors.  There  is,  moreover,  great  difficulty  in 
determining  the  age  of  children.  Certificates  are  occa- 
sionally traded  and  sold  among  foreigners,  and  sometimes 

1  Ttvclflh  Census,  Vol.  VIII,  Manufactures,  Part  2,  p.  131. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  37 

a  younger  child  will  present  the  certificate  of  an  older 
brother  or  sister.  Children  are  taught  to  lie  about  their 
own  ages,  and  church  records  often  disprove  the  affi- 
davits of  parents.  In  one  case  in  New  York  a  girl,  14 
years  of  age,  ' '  was  born  according  to  her  certificate,  only 
five  months  after  her  sister,  who  was  working  in  the  same 
factory  and  had  taken  out  her  certificate  the  year  be- 
fore."^ Many  other  practical  difficulties  are  constantly 
met  with,  especially  among  foreigners  and  in  the  cities. 

The  principal  recommendations  made  by  the  Industrial 
Commission  in  the  matter  of  child  labor  legislation  were : 
(a)  that  a  uniform  law  upon  the  subject  of  the  hours  of 
minors  in  factories  be  adopted  for  all  the  states,  but  not 
for  persons,  male  or  female,  above  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
except  in  certain  special  industries,  (b)  that  the  employ- 
ment of  children  in  factories  in  any  capacity,  or  for  any 
time,  under  the  age  of  fourteen,  be  prohibited,  and  (c) 
that  child  labor  be  universally  protected  bj^  educational 
restrictions,  providing  that  the  ability  to  read  and  write 
shall  be  required  for  employment  and  that  no  child  shall 
be  employed  except  during  vacation,  unless  he  has  at- 
tended school  for  at  least  twelve  weeks  during  the  previous 
year. 

4.  Occupations  of  Working  Women  and  Children: 
Although  most  of  the  legislation  discussed  in  the  preced- 
ing paragraph  has  been  aimed  at  evils  peculiar  to  the 
manufacturing  industries,  the  problems  of  w^oman  and 
child  labor  are  not  confined  to  any  single  class  of  occupa- 

1  Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  Bureau  of  Lahor,  No.  52,  p.  489. 


38  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

tions,  as  is  shown  in  the  opposite  table.  The  figures 
need  no  elaboration,  but  they  do  deserve  careful  notice, 
because  the  character  of  the  particular  occupation 
determines  largely  the  good  or  deleterious  effect  of  the 
employment  of  women,  and  minimizes  or  aggravates  the 
evils  involved  in  the  labor  of  children.  It  is  true,  never- 
theless, that  certain  evils,  such  as  the  necessity  for 
constant  standing,  and  the  over-exertion  of  one  set  of 
muscles — particularly  disastrous  in  the  case  of  children — 
are  common  to  many,  if  not  most  industries. 

The  fact,  for  instance,  that  the  occupations  represented 
in  domestic  and  personal  service  (which  in  1900  employed 
1,953,467  women,  or  more  than  any  other  group)  are  all 
within  woman's  traditional  sphere  of  activit}"  and,  even 
when  they  represent  seriows  evils  and  abuses,  do  not  form 
a  new  problem,  is  of  the  greatest  importance  in  any 
consideration  of  woman  labor.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
employment  of  770,055  women  in  agriculture,  of  which 
number  more  than  one-half  were  agricultural  laborers, 
seems  discouraging,  although  a  large  proportion  of  these 

were   Southern   negroes.     In   the   South,   field   labor   is 

I 

common,  even  for  white  women,  and  there  are  doubtless 
many  evils  connected  with  such  employment.  A  lai'ge 
and  increasing  number  of  the  women  engaged  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits,  however,  are  farmers,  planters  and 
overseers.  These,  with  the  429,497  women  in  profes- 
^onal  service,  are  probably  the  most  prosperous  workers 
of  their  sex. 

By  far  the  largest  number  of  children  employed  in  any 


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40  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

occupation  group  were  found  in  agricultural  pursuits, 
which  in  1900  employed  854,690  boys  and  207,281  girls. 
Almost  all  children  of  either  sex  engaged  in  agricultural 
pursuits  were  agricultural  laborers.  Although  in  many 
ways  the  employment  of  children  in  agriculture  is  not  as 
objectionable  as  their  employment  in  the  manufacturing 
industries,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  early 
age  at  which  they  are  sometimes  put  to  work,  especially  in 
the  South,  is  physically  and  mentally  injurious,  and  en- 
forces illiteracy  upon  the  child  laborers.  In  that  section 
both  white  and  colored  boys  of  ten  are  engaged  in  plow- 
ing, while  children  are  put  to  work  to  hoe  and  pick  cotton 
by  the  time  they  are  six  years  old. 

The  change  in  the  distribution  of  the  labor  force  of  the 
nation  is  depicted  in  the  opposite  table.  The  increased 
industrial  importance  of  women  is  shown  in  every  occu- 
pation group,  while  the  decrease  in  the  proportion  of 
children  is  due  entirely  to  a  movement  in  domestic  and 
personal  service,  the  percentage  of  children  increasing 
in  every  other  group.  The  most  notable  increase  in  the 
proportion  of  women  was  in  trade  and  transportation, 
and  of  children  in  agricultural  pursuits.  Women,  how- 
ever, appear  to  be  increasing  relatively  in  nearly  all  the 
occupations  of  which  these  main  classes  are  composed. 

5.  Woman  and  Child  Lahor  in  the  Manufacturing 
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tries that  the  most  serious  and  wide-spread  evils  of  woman 
and  child  labor  are  found,  and  in  this  group  concentration 
in  particular  pursuits  is  not  as  marked  as  in  the  others. 


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42  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

Nevertheless,  out  of  the  1,199,452  women  engaged  in 
manufacturing  industries  in  1900,  338,144  were  dress- 
makers, the  next  largest  number  being  seamstresses.  Of 
the  170,653  boys  the  largest  number  were  miners  and 
quarrymen,  while  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  113,216 
girls  were  seamstresses,  dressmakers,  tailoresses,  milliners 
and  shirt,  collar  and  cuff  makers.  For  both  sexes  of 
children  and  also  for  women  the  various  textile  mills 
furnished  important  occupations. 

The  statistics  of  manufactures,  however,  furnish  a 
more  satisfactory  basis  for  a  study  of  woman  and  child 
labor  in  the  manufacturing  industries  than  do  the  sta- 
tistics of  occupations.  Though  compiled  from  the  returns 
of  the  manufacturers  and  embracing  only  this  one  occu- 
pation group,  these  figures  distinguish  between  the 
employers  and  employees  and  are  consequently  applicable, 
as  the  occupation  figures  are  not,  in  a  study  primarily 
devoted  to  the  conditions  of  wage  labor. 

The  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  employment 
of  women  and  children  in  the  manufacturing  industries 
during  the  thirty  years  from  1870  to  1900  are  shown  in 
the  table  opposite,  Avliich  gives,  for  each  decade,  the 
percentage  which  the  different  classes  formed  of  the  total 
engaged  in  manufacturing  industries,  and  also  the  per- 
centage of  increase  of  each  class  by  decades ; 

Though  the  movement  has  been  somewhat  irregular, 
upon  the  whole  the  proportion  of  women  has  increased  at 
the  expense  of  both  men  and  children,  the  latter  decreas- 
ing very  decidedly  during  the  ten  years  which  ended  in 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR 


43 


Yea 

Per  Cent.  Each  Class 
IS  OP  Total 

Per  Cent,  of  Increase  During 
Previous  Decade 

1 

Men 
16  years 
and  ovsr 

Women 
16  years 
and  over 

Children 
under 
16  years 

Total 

Men 
16  years 
and  over 

Women 
16  years 
and  over 

Children 
under 
16  years 

1900 

77.4 

19.4 

3.2 

28.1 

23.5 

24.9 

39.5 

1890 

78.3 

18.9 

2.8 

55.6 

64.8 

51.2 

33.6^ 

1880 

73.9 

19.4 

6.7 

33.0 

25.0 

64.2 

58.7 

1870 

78.6 

15.8 

5.6 

.... 

1890,  but  increasing  again  during  the  last  decade.  The 
employment  of  women  has  increased,  except  from  1880  to 
1890,  more  rapidly  than  the  employment  of  men,  the 
actual  number  of  women  nearly  doubling  between  1880 
and  1900 ;  while  the  employment  of  children  increased 
from  1890  to  1900  more  rapidly  than  the  employment  of 
either  men  or  women,  the  actual  number  of  children  at  the 
time  of  the  last  census  being  nearly  forty  per  cent,  greater 
than  in  1890.  Though  these  figures  show  the  general  ten- 
dency of  child  labor  in  the  manufacturing  industries,  the 
apparent  increase  in  children  since  1890  is  not  entirely 
a  real  one,  for  while  in  1890  the  schedule  called  for  the 
number  of  males  above  16,  females  above  15,  and  children, 
in  1900,  "the  corresponding  schedule  called  for  men  16 
years  and  over,  women  16  years  and  over,  and  children 
under  16  years.  The  number  of  children  as  reported  by 
the  census,  therefore,  includes  for  1890  boys  under  16 
and  girls  under  15,  while  for  1900  the  figures  include  both 
boys  and  girls  up  to  the  age  of  16.  Other  things  remain- 
*  Decrease. 


U"..-.-^ 


44  '  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

ing  equal,  this  would  lead  to  an  increase  in  the  apparent 
number  of  children  employed."^ 

Geographically,  the  labor  of  women  in  the  manufac- 
turing industries  is  of  the  greatest  relative  importance  as 
compared  Avith  that  of  men  in  the  New  England  and 
Middle  States,  and  the  labor  of  children  in  the  Southern 
States.  In  1900,  indeed,  the  New  England  and  Middle 
States  together  employed  68.4  per  cent,  of  all  the  women, 
while  the  Middle  and  Southern  States  together  employed 
61.8  per  cent,  of  all  the  children.  Taking  the  United 
States  as  a  whole,  the  percentage  of  women  is  higher  in 
the  urban  and  the  percentage  of  children  in  the  rural 
districts. 

In  many  of  the  manufacturing  occupations  the  labor  of 
women  is  employed  under  conditions  which  tend,  not  only 
to  promote  various  social  evils,  but  also  to  lower  seriously 
the  plane  of  competition"  within  the  specific  industry. 
Child  labor,  however,  furnishes  by  far  the  more  serious 
problem,  for  in  nearly  all  these  occupations,  both  in  the 
North  and  in  the  South,  little  children  can  be  found 
sacrificing  their  future  efficiency  as  adults  by  severe, 
unsuitable  or  unhealthf  ul  labor.  It  is  impossible  to  study 
in  detail  the  many  varieties  of  tasks  performed,  but  at 
least  two  of  the  principal  occupations  of  children  demand 
some  attention,— the  manufacture  of  glass  and  the  textile 
industries. 

In  the  glass  works  more  children  are  employed  than  in ' 
any  other  of  the  fifteen  divisions  of  the  manufacturing 

'■Industrial  Cotnmission,  XIX,  p.  91G. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  45 

industries  except  textile  factories.  "It  is  stated  that 
each  man  employed  as  a  glassblower  is  required  to  furnish 
a  boy  as  'helper,'  and  that  a  combination  of  the  padrone 
system  and  veritable  child  slavery  exists.  Incidentally 
it  has  been  developed  that  many  boys  have  been  placed 
in  the  families  of  glassblowers  by  private  child-placing 
societies  and  orphan  asylums  of  New  Jersey  and  Penn- 
sylvania."^ This  has  also  been  done  by  New  York 
societies.  In  certain  localities  many  of  the  children 
employed  in  glass  works  are  under  the  legal  age  limit,  and 
the  night  labor  of  young  boys  is  common,  as  it  is  necessary 
to  operate  the  factories  continuously  during  the  season. 

The  textile  industries,  however,  rank  first  in  the  em- 
ployment of  women  as  well  as  of  children.  In  the 
manufacture  of  cotton,  for  instance,  women  form  41.9  per 
cent,  and  children  13.3  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of 
employees.  This  is  the  largest  percentage  of  children  in 
any  of  the  subdivisions  of  textile  manufacture.  The 
largest  percentage  of  women  is  64.2  per  cent,  in  hosiery 
and  knit  goods,  and  the  next  largest  is  53.2  per  cent,  in 
silk  manufacture.  For  the  vast  majority  of  children  in 
the  textile  industries  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  little 
industrial  training  which  fits  them  for  adult  labor,  and 
less  opportunity  to  advance ;  while  the  women  are,  for  the 
most  part,  merely  cheap  laborers. 

In  the  South  the  recent  development  of  cotton  manu- 
facture has  led  to  such  evil  conditions  that  universal 
attention  has  been  attracted  to  the  problem,— conditions 

^Annals  of  the  American  Academy,  Vol.  XX,  No.  1,  p.  194. 


46  T.ABOR  PROBLEMS 

SO  bad  that  they  have  even  been  compared  to  those  that 
existed  in  England  during  the  early  days  of  the  factory 
system.  The  employees  of  these  Southern  factories  are  an 
illiterate,  ignorant  set  of  white  people,  enticed  from  their 
isolated  homes  in  the  hills  by  the  bait  of  wages  and  oppor- 
tunities never  before  enjoyed.  As  a  result  of  the  needs, 
the  ignorance  and  the  moral  obtuseness  of  these  people  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  the  greed  and  selfishness  of  the  man- 
ufaeturers,  especially  those  from  the  North,  on  the  other, 
children  are  put  to  work  in  the  cotton  mills  at  an  early 
age,  sometimes  as  low  as  six  years.  Throughout  the  South 
the  practice  prevails  of  employing  help  by  the  family,  thfl 
employer  providing  house  room  according  to  the  numbe* 
of  "hands"  which  the  head  of  the  family  can  suppb  . 
The  younger  children  are  used  as  doffers  in  the  spinning' 
room  and  the  older  ones  as  spinners.  Though  the  work 
itself  is  not  very  laborious,  the  confinement  and  the  dust 
of  the  work-rooms  are  highly  detrimental,  while  the  chil- 
dren are  even  more  commonly  illiterate  than  are  th(  iii- 
parents.  In  1899,  for  instance,  an  investigation  in  Nort|; 
Carolina  shoAved  that,  out  of  38,637  persons  employed  in 
224  cotton  and  woolen  mills,  82  per  cent,  of  the  adults  ar.d 
only  68  per  cent,  of  the  children  could  read  and  write. 
That  thousands  of  factory  children  are  growing  up,  not 
only  stunted  and  frequently  maimed  in  body,  but  also 
thoroughly  illiterate,  ignorant,  unskilled  and  inefficient, 
is  a  reproach,  as  well  as  a  social  and  economic  menace  to 
the  South.  INIoreover,  if  the  Southern  states  are  to  main- 
tain  their  connnercial   position,   they  must  befor'e   long 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  47 

manufacture  a  higher  grade  of  goods  than  at  present,  and 
this  can  not  be  done  without  the  development  of  more 
skillful  operatives,  Avhicli  in  turn  implies  education  and 
manual  training  instead  of  child  labor. 

6.  Nativity  and  Color  of  Working  Women  and  Chil- 
dren: Of  all  the  females  10  years  of  age  and  over, 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations  in  1900,  over  one-third, 
or  36.2  per  cent,  were  native  white  of  native  parents; 
nearly  one-fourth,  or  24.8  per  cent.,  were  negroes ;  nearly 
as  many,  or  22.3  per  cent.,  were  native  white  of  foreign 
parents;  and  about  one-sixth,  or  16.5  per  cent.,  were 
foreign  white.  Between  1890  and  1900  the  proportion 
of  native  white  of  native  parents  and  of  native  white 
of  foreign  parents  increased  slightly  at  the  expense  of  the 
negroes  and  of  the  foreign  whites. 

The  tendency  towards  the  employment  of  woman  labor 
is  considerably  greater,  however,  among  the  negroes  than 
in  any  other  element  of  the  population,  as  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  more  than  tM^o-fifths,  or  40.7  per  cent.,  of  all  the 
negro  women  10  years  of  age  and  over  were  engaged  in 
gainful  occupations  in  1900,  while  only  about  one-half 
that  proportion,  or  21.7  per  cent.,  of  the  native  white  of 
foreign  parents,  19.1  per  cent,  of  the  foreign  white  and 
13.0  per  cent,  of  the  native  white  of  native  parents  were  so 
engaged.  The  proportion  of  female  workers  was  higher 
in  1900  than  in  1890  for  each  element  of  the  native  white 
population,  as  well  as  for  the  negro  population,  but  for  the 
foreign  white  females  the  proportion  at  work  was  slightly 
lower.     These  differences  are  not  due  entirely,  however, 


48  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

to  the  tendency  of  the  various  elements  towards  gainful 
occupations,  but  is  partly  the  result  of  differences  in  age 
composition  of  the  several  elements.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
safe  to  conclude  that  woman  labor  is  most  common  among 
the  negroes  and  least  common  among  the  native  white  of 
native  parents,  and  that  it  tends  to  increase  in  all  three 
native  elements,  regardless  of  color  or  parentage. 

Working  women  of  the  negro  race,  however,  are 
practically  concentrated  in  two  occupation  groups,  agri- 
cultural pursuits  and  domestic  and  personal  service, 
while  in  the  other  three  groups  the  native  white  of  native 
parents  form  the  largest  proportion  of  the  women  work- 
ers. In  1900  negroes  constituted  about  three-fifths,  59.5 
per  cent.,  of  all  the  females  10  years  of  age  and  over 
engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  and  nearly  one-third, 
32.6  per  cent.,  of  all  those  in  domestic  and  personal  service. 
In  agricultural  pursuits,  indeed,  over  90  per  cent,  of  all 
females  engaged  were  either  negroes  or  native  white  of 
native  parents.  Most  of  the  negroes  were  farm  laborers, 
while  the  majority  of  the  native  white  females  of  native 
parents  were  farmers. 

The  native  white  of  native  parents  were  more  evenly 
distributed  than  any  other  element,  though  they  formed 
nearly  two-thirds,  64  per  cent.,  of  all  the  women  in  pro- 
fessional pursuits,  not  far  from  one-half,  45.9  per  cent., 
of  all  in  trade  and  transportation  and  nearly  two-fifths, 
39.4  per  cent.,  of  all  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
pursuits.     In  trade  and  transportation  and  manufacture 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  49 

ing  and  mechanical  pursuits  the  proportion  of  native 
white  of  foreign  parents  nearly  equalled  that  of  native 
white  of  native  parents,  and  even  in  professional  service 
the  native  white  of  foreign  parents  formed  more  than 
one-fourth,  26.3  per  cent.,  of  all  the  women,  but  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits  both  of  the  foreign  elements  were  of 
slight  importance,  each  forming  less  than  5  per  cent,  of 
all  the  women  engaged.  The  foreign  white  were,  indeed, 
practically  concentrated  in  domestic  and  personal  service 
and  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits,  in  each  of 
which  they  formed  more  than  one-fifth,  22.3  per  cent, 
and  21.4  per  cent,  respectively,  of  the  total  female  work- 
ers, while  in  trade  and  transportation  they  constituted 
about  ose-eighth,  12.6  per  cent.,  of  all  the  females. 

To  sum  up,  the  native  white  women  of  native  parents 
attained  their  greatest  prominence  in  professional  ser- 
vice, the  native  white  of  foreign  parents  in  trade  and 
transportation,  the  foreign  white  in  domestic  and  personal 
service,  and  the  negro  in  agricultural  pursuits,  while  in 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits  all  three  white 
elements  were  prominent. 

The  disposition  manifested  by  the  several  elements  of 
the  population  to  put  their  children  to  work,  differs  some- 
what from  the  tendency  displayed  by  the  women  of  these 
classes  to  engage  in  gainful  labor,  as  appears  in  the  table 
on  page  50. 

The  proportion  of  children  of  each  sex  at  work  was 
much  the  largest  among  the  negroes,  about  one-half  of  all 


50 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


PnopoRTiON  OF  Children  10  to  15  Years  o:^  Aoe  Engaged  in 
Gainful  Occupations,  by  General  Nativity  and  Color 


Native  white-native  parents  . 
Native  white-foreign  parents 

Foreign  white 

Colored 

Negro 

Total 


Males 
Per  cent. 

Females 
Per  cent. 

24.3 

5.7 

16.9 

7.9 

29.2 

20.3 

48.6 

30.1 

49.3 

30.6 

26.1 

10.2 

negro  boys  and  nearly  one-third  of  all  negro  girls  10  to 
15  years  of  age  being  at  work.  The  next  largest  propor- 
tion of  children  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  was 
found  among  the  foreign  white.  A  larger  proportion  of 
boys  were  employed  among  the  native  white  of  native 
parents  than  among  the  native  white  of  foreign  parents, 
mainly  owing  to  the  greater  extent  to  which  the  native 
white  parents  were  engaged  in  agriculture,  but  the  native 
white  of  native  parents  showed  the  smallest  proportion 
of  girls. 

As  for  the  occupations  of  these  children,  the  negroes 
were  concentrated,  like  the  women  of  their  race,  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits  and  domestic  and  personal  service,  the 
foreign  white  were  most  prominent  in  manufacturing 
and  mechanical  pursuits,  and  the  native  white  of  foreign 
parents  were  largely  engaged  in  trade  and  transportation 
and  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits,  while  the 
native  white  of  native  parents  were  fairly  evenly  dis- 
tributed, attaining  greatest  prominence  in  agricultural 
pursuits. 


c 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  51 

The  negro  children  of  both  sexes  formed,  however,  a 
much  smaller  proportion,  38.2  per  cent.,  of  all  children 
10  to  15  years  of  age  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits 
than  negro  females  formed  of  all  females  in  the  same 
occupation  group,  while  native  white  children  of  native 
parents  formed  a  much  larger  proportion,  53.1  per  cent., 
than  native  white  females  of  native  parents.  In  domestic 
and  personal  service,  however,  the  negro  children  formed 
exactly  one-third,  33.3  per  cent.,  of  all  children,  while  the 
native  white  children  of  native  parents  formed  less  than 
two-fifths,  38.4  per  cent. 

In  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits  native 
white  children  of  native  parents  formed  a  smaller  pro- 
portion, 40.5  per  cent.,  than  in  any  other  group  except 
domestic  and  personal  service,  but  the  foreign  white  chil- 
dren formed  a  larger  proportion,  17.9  per  cent.,  than  in 
any  other  group,  and  the  native  white  of  foreign  parents 
a  larger  proportion,  38.3  per  cent.,  than  in  any  other 
group  except  trade  and  transportation,  in  which  41.0  per 
cent,  of  all  the  children  were  native  white  of  foreign 
parents.  Trade  and  transportation,  indeed,  is  the  only 
group  in  which  the  number  of  native  white  children  of 
foreign  parents  exceeded  the  number  of  native  white  chil- 
dren of  native  parents. 

7.  Special  Problems  of  Woman  Lahor:  There  is 
nothing  abnormal  or  objectionable  about  the  mere  fact 
that  adult  women  are  at  work  at  most  of  the  occupations 
in  which  men  are  engaged  Moreover,  the  wage  labor  of 
women,  under  the  prevailing  system,  is  open  to  few  ob- 


52  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

jections  which  can  not  be  made  equally  to  the  wage  laboi 
of  men.  Even  the  conditions  under  which  women  work, 
while  frequently  representing  greater  hardships  to  them 
on  account  of  their  sex,  are,  in  the  main,  different  merely 
in  quantity,  and  not  in  quality,  from  those  under  which 
men  are  employed. 

There  are,  however,  three  distinct  social  or  economic 
evils  accompanying  woman  labor.  First  is  the  employ- 
ment of  married  women,  which  usually  means  the  neglect 
of  the  home,  if  not  of  young  children.  Second  is  the  low, 
and  often  wholly  inadequate,  rate  of  remuneration. 
Partially  dependent  upon  this,  but  introducing  also 
serious  economic  consequences,  is  the  competition  of 
women  with  men,  which  means  in  many  instances  the 
underbidding  of  laborers  with  a  high  standard  of  life  by 
laborers  with  a  low  standard  of  life,  and  which  tends 
constantly  to  lower  the  plane  of  competition. 

(a)  Married  Women  in  Industry:  The  working 
women  of  this  country  are,  as  a  class,  young,  about  one- 
half,  49.3  per  cent.,  of  all  engaged  in  gainful  occupations 
in  1900  being  under  25,  and  nearly  one-third,  32.4  per 
cent.,  jbeing  under  21  years  of  age.  Of  all  the  females 
between  the  ages  of  16  and  24,  31.6  per  cent,  were  engaged 
in  gainful  occupations,  while  in  the  age  group  25  to  34 
years  only  19.9  per  cent.,  and  in  the  age  group  35  to  44 
years  only  15.6  per  cent,  were  gainfully  occupied,  the 
proportion  steadily  decreasing  with  advancing  years. 
The  sudden  decrease  of  gainfully  occupied  women  in  the 
age  group  25  to  34  doubtless  indicates  the  effect  of  mat- 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  53 

rimony.  It  is,  therefore,  no  surprise  to  learn  that  only 
769,477  married  women,  14.7  per  cent,  of  all  gainfully 
employed  females,  were  at  work  in  the  United  States  in 
1900. 

The  negro  element,  however,  furnished  a  striking  ex- 
ception to  the  general  reduction,  which  appears  in  each 
element  of  the  white  population,  in  the  proportion  of 
women  gainfully  employed  after  the  age  of  24,  the  negroes 
showing  no  marked  change  until  the  age  of  65  was  reached 
Evidently  marriage  has  little  effect  in  reducing  the  num- 
ber of  negro  women  at  work.  Of  all  married  negro 
females  10  years  of  age  and  over,  indeed,  more  than  one- 
fourth,  or  26.0  per  cent,  as  compared  with  3.6  per  cent, 
for  the  foreign  white,  3.1  per  cent,  for  the  native  white  of 
foreign  parents,  and  3.0  per  cent,  for  the  native  white  of 
native  parents,  were  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  at 
the  time  of  the  last  census.  Of  the  married  negro  women 
gainfully  employed,  however,  about  65  per  cent,  were 
either  agricultural  laborers  or  laundresses. 

During  the  decade  1890  to  1900  the  proportion  of 
females  gainfully  employed  increased  in  every  conjugal 
class,  the  married  women  simply  sharing  in  the  general 
movement.  The  small  proportion  of  married  women 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations  increased,  however,  from 
4.6  per  cent,  to  5.6  per  cent.,  a  relatively  greater  increase 
than  is  shown  in  the  large  proportions  of  single  and 
divorced  women. 

The  largest  percentage  of  married  women  at  work  was 
found  in  the  South,  indicating,  again,  the  effect  of  the 


54  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

negrc  element.  In  the  South  Atlantic  division  11.8  per 
cent,  and  in  the  South  Central  division  9.0  per  cent,  of  all 
married  women  were  engaged  in  gainful  occupations, 
while  in  both  the  North  Atlantic  and  "Western  divisions 

4.7  per  cent.,  and  in  the  North  Central  division  only  2.5 
per  cent,  of  the  married  women  were  so  engaged. 

As  for  the  occupational  distribution,  23.2  per  cent  of 
all  the  women  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits,  15.4 
per  cent,  of  those  in  domestic  and  personal  service,  11.8 
per  cent,  of  those  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
pursuits,  7.4  per  cent,  of  those  in  professional  service,  and 

6.8  per  cent,  of  those  in  trade  and  transportation  were 
married.  The  high  percentage  of  married  women  in 
agricultural  pursuits  might  be  expected  from  the  large 
number  of  negro  women  engaged  in  that  occupation 
group.  In  the  case  of  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
pursuits  the  high  percentage,  though  partly  due  to  the 
tendency  of  French  Canadian  women  to  work  in  the 
factories  after  marriage,  is  largely  the  result  of  the 
frequency  with  which  married  women  were  found  as 
dressmakers,  seamstresses  and  tailoresses.  Married  wo- 
men are  commonly  engaged  in  the  sweat  shops.  In  New 
York  City,  for  instance,  out  of  748  female  home  finishers, 
658  were  married,  557  of  these  having  from  one  to  seven 
children.^ 

The  labor  of  married  women,  however,  is  as  yet  com- 
paratively unimportant  in  the  United  States,  and  can 


1  Ttcentieth  Annual  Report  of  the  (New  YorJO  Rurenu  of  T^nhor  F!ta 
tUtica,  p.  61. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  55 

hardly  be  said  to  constitute  a  serious  problem.  More- 
over, a  considerable  proportion  of  the  married  women  who 
are  at  work  are  engaged  in  occupations,  such  as  those  of 
dressmakers  and  laundresses,  which  are  frequently  car- 
ried on  within  the  home,  and  many  of  the  other  gainfully 
employed  married  women  are,  doubtless,  childless. 

(6)  Low  Wages:  It  is  generally  admitted  that  wo- 
men will  work  for  lower  wages  than  men  on  similar  work, 
and  that  this  results  in  their  failing  to  receive  fair  com- 
pensation for  labor  performed.  In  some  instances  trade 
unions  have  attempted  to  remedy  this  evil  by  insisting  on 
the  same  wages  for  both  sexes  for  the  same  work.  Except 
in  a  few  industries,  however,  their  efforts  have  usually  met 
with  failure,  largely  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  organizing 
women  or  bringing  about  among  them  any  systematic 
effort  to  improve  or  maintain  their  conditions  of  employ- 
ment. An  even  more  serious  evil,  however,  results  from 
the  fact  that,  though  out  of  303  separate  occupations  givea 
by  the  census  of  1900  only  eight  do  not  return  female 
workers,  women  are  still  crowded  for  the  most  part  into 
certain  lines  of  unskilled  labor  where  competition  is  most 
intense,  and,  as  a  consequence,  many  of  them  obviously 
do  not  receive  a  living  wage. 

The  fact  is  so  well  known  as  to  need  no  proof,  and  it  is 
here  necessary  merely  to  summarize  the  principal  causes 
of  the  lower  wages  of  women,  which  are  (a)  their  com- 
parative lack  of  ambition  to  attain  industrial  efficiency, 
owing  to  the  expectation  of  marriage  and  domestic  life, 
(b)  their  comparative  lack  of  mobility  in  changing  from 


56  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

one  industry  as  well  as  from  one  locality  to  another. 

(e)  their  somewhat  lower  cost  of  subsistence,  (d)  their 
frequent  partial  dependence  upon  other  members  of  their 
families,  (e)  their  general  lack  of  training  and  skill,  and 

(f)  their  enforced  competition  with  the  great  reserve 
army  of  potential  women  wage-earners.  "The  deep 
abiding  difficulty  in  the  way  of  organizing  women  work- 
ers lies  here.  Cut  out  as  they  are,  by  physical  weakness, 
by  lack  of  the  means  of  technical  training,  in  some  cases 
by  organized  opposition  of  male  workers,  or  by  social 
prejudices,  from  competing  in  a  large  number  of  skilled 
industries,  their  competition  within  the  permitted  range 
of  occupations  is  keener  than  among  men :  not  merely  in 
the  unskilled  but  in  the  skilled  industries  the  available 
supply  of  labor  is  commonly  far  in  excess  of  the  demand, 
for  the  skill  is  generally  such  as  is  common  to  or  easily 
attainable  by  a  large  number  of  the  sex. '  '^ 

(c.)  Competition  with  Men:  The  competition  of  wo- 
\  men,  and  also  of  children,  with  men  may  be  disastrous  in 
two  different  ways.  First,  men  may  be  actually  displaced 
and  thrown  out  of  emploj^ment.  Second,  their  wages 
may  be  reduced  by  reason  of  the  super-abundant  supply 
of  cheap  labor. 

As  for  the  first  complaint,  there  seems  no  good  reason 
to  believe  that  the  increased  employment  of  women  in 
gainful  occupations  indicates  any  true  displacement  of 
men,  for  during  the  past  century  there  has  been  a  strongly 
marked  tendency,  which  still  continues,  towards  the  trans- 

>  ilobson,  TJiC  Evolution  of  Mudirn   ''aiiituUsm,  pp.  31G-317. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  57 

ference  of  industry  from  the  home  to  the  factory.  On 
the  whole,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  women  are 
an  addition  to  the  total  number  of  wage  earners  rather 
than  to  the  total  number  of  productive  laborers.  "The 
census  records  in  respect  to  the  labor  of  women,  therefore, 
read  in  the  light  of  collateral  facts,  are  a  history  of  indus- 
trial readjustment  rather  than  a  record  of  the  relative 
extent  of  the  employment  of  women,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  say,  so  far  as  the  census  figures  are  concerned,  whether 
a  larger  proportion  of  women  are  actively  engaged  in 
labor  to-day  than  formerly  or  not.  The  one  fact  which  is 
clear  is  that  factory  or  shop  work  is  displacing  home  work, 
and  that  this  readjustment  of  industrial  conditions  is 
leading  to  the  employment  of  women  outside  the  home  in 
constantly  increasing  numbers. '  '^ 

The  complaint,  however,  that  woman  labor  is  cheap 
labor,  and  that  the  presence  of  women  in  the  industrial 
field  lowers  the  plane  of  competition  and,  consequently, 
the  standard  of  life  of  the  laboring  class,  is  more  firmly 
grounded.  There  is,  indeed,  considerable  evidence  to 
show  that  "in  proportion  as  the  wife  and  children  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  the  family  the  wages  of  the 
father  are  reduced."^  Thus  it  has  been  demonstrated, 
by  a  comparison  of  wages  in  the  textile  industries  of 
Rhode  Island  and  in  the  metal  industries  of  western  Con- 
necticut that,  w^hile  in  the  one  case  the  women  and 
children  work  and  in  the  other  only  the  men,  the  family 

*  Industrial  Commission,  XIX,  p.  926. 
"Gunton,  Wealth  and  Progress,  p.  171. 


58  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

wages  do  not  differ  materiall3^  There  is  some  question, 
however,  as  to  whether  the  men's  wages  are  low  because 
the  women  and  children  work,  or  the  women  and  children 
work  because  the  men's  wages  are  low.  However  that 
may  be,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  low  wage  rate 
received  by  women  as  compared  with  men  tends  to  lower 
the  plane  of  competition  and  is  the  greatest  evil  of  woman 
labor. 

8.  Conditions  of  Child  Labor:  The  employment  of 
women  in  gainful  occupations  is  presumably  natural, 
and,  unless  it  be  shown  to  the  contrary,  unaccompanied 
by  deep-seated  and  serious  abuses  unknown  in  the  em- 
ployment of  men.  In  the  case  of  child  labor,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  presumption  is  that  the  results  are  socially  and 
economically  evil  unless  satisfactory  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary can  be  produced.  Moreover,  such  evidence  must 
show,  not  only  that  the  particular  occupation  is^'ce  from 
injurious  effects  or  dangers,  physical,  mental,  or  moral, 
but  that  it  is  essentially  educational  in  character  and  that 
the  young  worker  is  prepared  for  a  useful  and'  honorable 
career  as  an  adult.  Needless  to  say,  there  are  very  few 
cases  of  child  labor  which  meet  these  requirements. 

The  extent  of  the  evil,  however,  depends,  not  only  upon 
the  conditions  already  described,  such  as  the  occupational 
distribution,  but  also  upon  (a)  the  ages,  (b)  the  hours- 
(c)  the  health,  and  (d)  the  education  of  the  child 
workers. 

(a)  Ages:  More  than  one-half,  54.8  per  cent.,  of  all 
the  children  10  to  15  years  of  age  gainfully  employed  in 


WOMAN  AND  CHli^D  LABOK  59 

1900  were  either  14  or  15  years  of  age,  but  about  one-sixth, 
17.2  per  cent.,  were  under  12.  The  percentages  for  each 
year  were  as  follows:  10  j^ears,  8.1  per  cent. ;  11  years,  9.1 
per  cent. ;  12  years,  12.7  per  cent. ;  13  years,  15.3  per  cent. ; 
14  years,  23.2  per  cent. ;  15  years,  31.6  per  cent.  The 
percentages  for  girls  were  somewhat  lower  in  the  first 
four  ages  and  correspondingly  higher  in  the  last  two  than 
the  percentages  for  boys,  showing  that  there  is  a  tendency 
to  employ  boys  at  an  earlier  age  than  girls.  The  differ- 
ence, however,  is  slight,  46.3  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  42.2 
per  cent,  of  the  girls  being  under  14  years  of  age. 

The  labor  of  children  of  the  earlier  ages  is  far  more 
prevalent  in  the  South  than  in  the  North  and  West,  In 
the  South  Central  division,  for  example,  about  one-fourth, 
25.2  per  cent.,  of  the  boys  and  exactly  one-fourth,  25  per 
cent.,  of  the  girls  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  were 
under  12  years  of  age,  while  in  the  North  Central  division 
only  a  little  more  than  one-tenth,  11.1  per  cent,  of  the 
boys  and  one-twentieth,  4.9  per  cent.,  of  the  girls  were 
under  12.  The  North  Atlantic  division  made  the  most 
favorable  showing  with  only  3.9  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and 
2.3  per  cent,  of  the  girls  under  12,  and  about  one-half, 
51.1  per  cent.,  of  the  boys  and  48.2  per  cent,  of  the  girls, 
under  15  years  of  age.  In  both  Southern  divisions  more 
than  three-fourths  of  the  children  of  each  sex  engaged  in 
gainful  occupations  were  under  15. 

The  most  important  factor  in  determining  the  propor- 
tion of  children  under  12  at  work  in  the  different 
divisions  and  states  is  the  relative  predominance  of  agri- 


60  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

cultural  pursuits.  Young  children  are  very  generally 
employed  in  agriculture  in  the  South  and  to  a  less  extent 
in  the  North  and  West,  while  in  the  other  occupation 
groups  a  large  majority  of  the  children  are  either  14  or  15 
years  of  age.  In  agricultural  pursuits,  indeed,  more 
than  one-half  of  the  boys  and  more  than  three-fifths  of 
the  girls  employed  in  1900  were  under  14,  but  in  each  of 
the  other  four  groups  of  occupations  from  more  than 
three-fifths  to  more  than  four-fifths  of  the  children  of  both 
sexes  were  either  14  or  15  years  of  age.  The  proportions 
under  12  were  exceptionally  high  in  the  occupations  of 
agricultural  laborers,  servants  and  waiters,  cotton  mill 
operatives,  and  laborers  (not  specified). 

The  employment  of  young  children  is  not  by  any  means 
limited  in  the  South  to  the  agricultural  industries,  but  is 
also  common  in  the  factories,  where  the  children  are 
almost  all  white.  Just  before  the  enactment  of  the  North 
Carolina  child  labor  law,  for  instance,  it  was  found  that 
in  13  manufacturing  establishments  in  that  state  18  per 
cent,  of  the  children  were  under  12  years  of  age  and  36 
per  cent,  were  between  12  and  14  years  of  age,  while  in 
South  Carolina  about  20  per  cent,  of  the  children  em- 
ployed in  9  establishments  were  under  12,  and  about  45 
per  cent,  between  12  and  14  years,  a  few  under  10  being 
found  in  both  states.  In  Georgia  about  10  per  cent,  of  the 
children  in  15  establishments  were  between  10  and  12 
and  about  44  per  cent,  between  12  and  14,  and  conditions 
in  Alabama  were  even  worse,  about  23  per  cent,  of  the 
children  in  4  establishments  being  under  12  and  about 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  61 

39  per  cent,  being  between  12  and  1-4  years  of  age.^  In 
canning  establishments  in  Maryland  children  as  young  as 
5  years  Avere  found  at  work  assisting  their  mothers  or 
other  adults,  while  in  tobacco  factories  children  of  six  or 
seven  commonly  helped  their  mothers. 

(h)  Hours:  Working  children  are  frequently  re-  I  ^/^~^ 
quired  to  toil  during  such  long  hours  that  their  strength  / 
is  utterly  exliausted  and  no  energy  whatever  is  left  for 
intellectual  profit  or  for  the  pleasures  which  the  young 
naturally  crave.  In  packing  houses,  for  instance,  where 
oysters,  vegetables  and  fruit  are  canned,  large  numbers 
of  young  children  are  emploj^ed  during  the  busy  season 
for  painfully  long  hours,  the  only  time  limit  being,  appar- 
ently, the  phj^sical  endurance  of  the  child. 

In  the  manufacturing  industries,  in  general,  the  work- 
ing time  depends  upon  the  existence  and  enforcement  of 
factory  legislation,  and  the  usual  hours  in  each  state  are 
the  maximum  number  prescribed  by  law.  Where  no  law 
exists  11  or  12  hours  a  day  and  about  66  a  week  is  the 
common  period  of  labor.  While  the  hours  in  mercantile 
establishments  are  usually  less  than  in  the  manufacturing 
industries,  Dr.  Sewall  found  the  working  time  to  be 
longest  in  those  stores  which  employed  the  most  children.^ 

Night  work  is  an  even  more  serious  evil,  for  in  this  case 
the  long  hours  of  labor  are  supplemented  by  imperfect 
rest  snatched  in  the  midst  of  the  day's  household  duties. 

^Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  52,  pp.  491- 
493. 

2  For  further  particulars  in  regard  to  the  hours  of  working  childreo 
the  reader  is  referred  to  Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  Bureau  of 
Labor,  No.  52,  pp.  501-506. 


62  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Many  mothers  whose  sons  work  at  night  state  that  the 
boys  are  up  by  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  though  some- 
times they  sleep  in  the  afternoon  just  before  going  to  work. 
Such  night  work  is  common,  not  only  in  the  glass  Avorks, 
but  in  furniture  factories,  silk  mills,  and  many  other 
occupations.  In  the  glass  works  the  demand  for  night 
work  of  boys  is  said  to  be  increasing.  In  North  Carolina 
Dr.  Sewall  found  that  of  66  children  working  nights  in 
four  mills  ' '  8  were  under  12  j^ears  of  age,  24  were  between 
12  and  14  years  of  age,  and  34  were  between  14  and  16 
years  of  age.  Of  the  8  under  12  years  of  age  5  were  boys 
and  3  were  girls. '  '^ 

'^  (c)  Health:  The  most  healthful  occupations  for 
children  are  undoubtedly  embraced  in  the  two  groups,— 
agricultural  pursuits  and  domestic  and  personal  service, 
though  even  in  these  the  work  is  often  entirely  too  heavy 
for  the  strength  of  the  child  laborers.  IMoreover,  the 
continement,  unnatural  restraint  and  monotony  age  the 
children  prematurely,  and  prevent  the  development  of 
ambitions  which  might  raise  the  standard  of  life. 
/  In  the  manufacturing  industries,  however,  there  exist 
far  greater  dangers  to  the  health,  and  also  to  the  life  and 
limb,  of  the  child  workers.  For  growing  children  there  is, 
in  almost  all  these  occupations,  the  danger  of  deformity 
from  the  over-development  of  one  set  of  muscles.  The 
breaker  boys,  for  instance,  are  frequently  defoi-med  and 
stunted  in  their  growth  by  the  constant  strain  of  leaning 
over  the  sliding  coal.     Moreover,  children  are  peculiarly 

^Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  52,  p.  491. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  63 

liable  to  be  maimed  through  carelessness  in  the  handling 
\  of  such  dangerous  machinery,  for  instance,  as  is  common 
in  tin-can  factories,  stamping-mills,  saw  mills  and  many 
vother  establishments.     In  a  recent  investigation  made  by 
the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor  it  was  found  that,  of  the 
few  wage  earners  considered,  the  boys  under  16  had  twice 
as  many  accidents  as  the  adults,  and  the  girls  under  16 
thirty-three  times  as  many  accidents  as  the  women.     Fre- 
quently  young   children   are    injured   who    are   simply 
employed  in  rooms  where   dangerous  machinery   is   in 
operation.     In  hundreds  of  cases,  however,  children  of  the 
I  laboring  classes  are  hired  to  tend  machines  which  those 
!  of  the  same  age  in  other  classes  of  society  would  not  be 
!  allowed  to  approach  except  under  the  careful  guardian- 
ship  of  an  adult. 

In  many  manufacturing  occupations  poisons  and  in- 
'jurious  dusts  are  necessarily  encountered  by  the  workers, 
and  to  these  children  are  far  more  susceptible  than  grown 
persons.  In  paper  box  factories,  for  instance,  which  are 
frequently,  if  not  usually,  located  in  old,  insanitary 
houses,  the  coloring  matter  is  often  poisonous.  In  type 
foundries  the  children  are  employed  on  the  very  part  of 
,  the  work  which  is  most  injurious,  the  rubbing  of  the  type, 
•  and  lead  poisoning,  in  one  form  or  another,  afflicts  nearly 
all  more  or  less  seriously.  The  most  common  danger, 
.however,  is  from  irritating  dusts,  which  are  found  in  a 
large  variety  of  industries,  from  the  cotton  mills  to  the 
coal  mines. 

One   especially   unwholesome   occupation,   which   era- 


64  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ployed  in  1900  an  average  of  7,913  children,  is  the 
manufacture  of  tobacco  goods.  A  large  part  of  this 
industry  is  carried  on  in  factories  which  are  insanitary, 
ill-ventilated,  and  unclean,  but  even  under  the  most  fa- 
vorable conditions  the  dust  of  the  tobacco  leaf  pollutes 
the  atmosphere,  and  the  strongest  adult  suffers  from  its 
poisonous  effects.  The  employment  of  young  children  in 
this  occupation  practically  predestines  them  to  nervous 
excitability,  disease  and  moral  depravity. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  all  of  the  occupa- 
tions which  have  been  found  injurious  to  the  health  of 
working  children,  and  these  facts  must  serve  simply  as 
examples  of  conditions  which  are  more  or  less  prevalent 
in  a  large  number  of  the  occupations  in  which  children 
are  employed.  Many  of  the  tasks  assigned  to  children, 
moreover,  though  harmless  in  themselves,  are  exhausting 
because  of  the  high  rate  of  speed  at  which  they  must  be 
performed.  Rapidity  is  often  induced  by  piece  payment, 
while  sometimes,  as  in  the  glass  works,  the  children  are 
worked  in  gangs  along  with  skilled  adults  who  are  piece 
workers.^ 

(d)  Education:  The  greatest  evil  of  child  labor,  out- 
side of  the  physical  effects,  is  the  mental  and  moral 
injury  suffered  in  the  deprivation  of  an  education  and  the 
substitution  of  a  daily  round  of  monotonous  labor,  which 
is  mere  profitless  drudgery  so  far  as  preparation  for  adult 


1  For  further  details  in  regard  to  the  physical  effect  of  various  indus- 
tries upon  the  children  employe^  the  reader  is  referred  to  Dr.  Hannah 
R.  Sewall's  report  upon  "Child  I.ahor  In  the  United  States,"  iu  Bu/fctin 
of  tht  (L'nited  States)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  52,  pp.  509-515. 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  65 

life  is  concerned  and  is  calculated  to  blunt  the  unde- 
veloped faculties  of  the  child.  Moreover,  the  moral 
environments  of  child  labor  are  almost  uniformly  un- 
desirable, and  there  can  be  no  greater  evil  connected  with 
the  system  than  the  contamination  and  the  formation  of 
vicious  habits  which  are  its  usual  though  unmeasured 
accompaniment. 

The  amount  of  education  which  working  children 
ordinarily  obtain  depends  upon  the  existence  or  non- 
existence of  compulsory  education  laws,  such  as  are  com- 
mon in  the  North  and  practically  unknown  in  the  South. 
As  a  result,  most  of  the  children  employed  in  the  North- 
ern states  are  able  to  read  and  write  English,  while  many 
of  the  foreign  children  who  can  not  do  so  can  read  and 
write  their  native  language.  In  the  states  of  North  and 
South  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Alabama,  however,  from  21 
per  cent,  in  North  Carolina  to  37  per  cent,  in  South  Caro- 
lina of  the  children  investigated  by  Dr.  Sewall  were 
wholly  illiterate.  Many  of  these  children  had  been  to 
school,  either  before  or  since  beginning  work,  but  had 
either  failed  to  learn  to  read  and  write,  or  had  forgotten 
all  they  had  been  taught.  Moreover,  very  few  working 
children,  except  in  a  few  states,  have  the  slightest  oppor- 
tunity of  obtaining  anything  more  than  the  rudiments  of 
an  education. 

From  several  other  points  of  view,  also,  the  wage  labor 
of  children  is  admitted  by  all  authorities  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  evils  in  modern  industrial  life.  In  its  worst 
form  it  leads  to  race  degeneracy,  while  at  best  it  means  to 


(36  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

both  men  and  women  the  lowest  form  of  competition. 
The  employment  of  children  under  fourteen  pauperizes 
the  parents  and  enforces  illiteracy  upon  the  children. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  prolific  causes  of  poverty,  pauperism, 
vice  and  crime  in  adult  years,  and  is,  in  fact,  a  grave 
menace  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  social  order. 
This  problem  is  both  a  Northern  and  a  Southern  one,  for 
though  child  labor  does  not  usually  take  place  at  such  an 
early  age  in  the  North  as  in  the  South,  it  is  even  greater 
in  extent,  and  many  of  the  street  boys  of  the  cities  are  as 
young  as  any  child  laborers  in  Southern  factories. 

While  child  labor  may  seem  to  be  to  the  immediate 
interest  of  both  parents  and  employers,  it  is  not  to  the 
ultimate  interest  of  either.  For  the  parents  it  raises  up  a 
disastrous  competition,  and  for  the  employers  it  leads, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  waste  of  time  and  material  from  in- 
competence and  carelessness,  and  on  the  other  hand,  to  a 
reduction  of  industrial  efficiency  through  the  stunting  of 
the  physical  and  mental  growth  of  the  rising  generation. 
Moreover,  the  wage-labor  of  children  tends  to  so  lower  the 
standard  of  life  of  the  working  class  that  its  total  purchas- 
ing power  is  reduced.  Finally,  so  long  as  cheap  labor  can 
be  utilized,  the  introduction  of  machinery  and  other 
labor  saving  devices  will  be  delayed. 

References  :  The  chief  authorities  used  in  the  preparation  of  this 
chapter  have  been  the  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  l^tates,  especially 
Vol.  VII,  Manufactures,  I'art  I,  pp.  cxxv-cxxxiii,  and  the  >Special  lUport 
on  Occupations,  pp.  Ixv-ccxlv  ;  the  h'cports  of  the  Industrial  Commis- 
sion, especially  Vol.  XIX.  pp.  91.1-9.S2  ;  and  the  special  report  on  Cliild 
Labor  in  the  United  States  prepared  by  Hannah  R.  Sewall,  Ph.  I).,  and 
published  In  the  Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  liureau  of  Ijahor.  No. 
52,  pp.  485-541,  with  the  tables  and  laws  attached  thereto      Valuable 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  67 

material  may  also  be  found  by  reference  to  the  Index  of  Labor  Reports. 
published  by  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  In  1902. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Child  Labor  and  Factory  Legislation   In   England  : 

(a)  Taylor,     The   Modern   Factory   System,    Chapter   V,    "The 

Factory  Controversy,"   pp.   177-227. 

(b)  Webb,  The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts,  pp.  192-223. 

2.  Legislation  in  the  United  States  :  ' 

(a)  Kelley,   "Child  Labor  Legislation,"  Annals  of  the  Ameri-  \ 

can  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Vol.  20, 
pp.    155-164. 

(b)  Robbins,    "The   Necessity   for   Factory    Legislation    in    the 

South,"  Annuls  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science,  Vol.  20,  pp.  181-188. 

(c)  Whittlesey,    "Tendencies    of    Factory    Legislation    and    In- 

spection in  the  United  States,"  Annals  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Vol.  20,  pp. 
235-253. 

3.  Working  Women  : 

(a)   Campbell,  Women  Wage-Earners. 

(6)  Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor,  Working  Women  in  Large  Cities,  Chap- 
ter  III,    pp.   61-77. 

(c)  Collet,    "Women's    Work     in     London,"   Booth,     Life    and 

Labor  of  the  People,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  256-327. 

(d)  Walker,  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  Vol.  II, 

pp.  241-244. 

4.  Women's  Wages  : 

(a)  Ilobson.    The  Evolution   of   Modern   Capitalism,   pp.    290- 

323. 

(b)  Levasseur,   The  American  Workman,  pp.  336-358. 

(c)  Webb,   Problems  of  Modern  Industry,  "Women's  Wages," 

pp.  46-81. 

5.  Child  Labor  : 

(a)  Willoughby,  "Child  Labor,"  Publications  of  the  Awicrtoon 
Economic  Association,  Vol.  V.  No.  2. 

(5)  De  Graffenried,  "Child  Labor,"  Publications  of  the  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association,  Vol.  V,   No.   2. 

(c)  Kelley  and  Stevens,   "Wage-Earning  Children  in  Chicago," 

Hull-House  Maps  and  Papers,  pp.   49-76. 

(d)  Fox,   "Child  Labor  in  New  Jersey."  Annals  of  the  Ameri- 

can Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Vol.  20, 
pp.   191-190, 


CHAPTER  III 

IMMIGRATION 

The  problem  of  immigration,  tlioiigli  not  peculiar  to  the 
United  States,  has  here  shown  its  more  serious  aspects, 
owing  to  the  enormous  numbers  and  the  racial  variety  of 
the  incoming  aliens.  Recently  public  attention  has  been 
attracted  to  the  subject  by  the  announcement  that  during 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1903,  a  new  record  for 
volume  of  immigration  was  established.  At  the  same  time 
it  became  clearly  evident  that  an  alarming  change  had 
taken  place  in  the  source  of  immigration, — a  change  w^hich 
is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  in  1882,  the  former  record 
year,  87.1  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants  from  the  continent 
of  Europe  came  from  the  countries  of  the  north  and  west, 
while  in  1903,  75.0  per  cent,  came  from  those  of  the  south 
and  east.  The  aliens  who  came  in  1882  were  closely  re- 
lated to  the  dominant  class  of  the  United  States  in  race, 
history,  customs,  laws  and  general  standard  of  life,  but 
those  of  1903  are  of  a  wholly  diiTerent  stock,  with  differ- 
ent traditions  and  ideals. 

Although  the  benefits  derived  by  this  country  from 
that  immigration  which  has  resulted  in  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  the  natural  resources  of  the  AVest  and  Northw^est 
is  incalculable,  it  is  claimed  that  the  influx  of  foreigners 


IMMIGRATION  gg 

of  a  low  standard  of  intelligence  and  of  life  depresses 
wages,  lessens  available  employment  for  native  labor  and 
is  a  distinct  hardship  to  the  American  workman.  In 
some  industries,  such  as  the  manufacture  of  clothing  and 
the  mining  of  coal,  it  is  evident  that  native  laborers  have 
been  practically  driven  from  the  field  by  foreigners  with 
a  lower  standard  of  life.  Moreover,  it  is  maintained  by 
those  who  desire  further  restriction  of  immigration,  that 
the  influx  of  ignorant,  inefficient  and  poverty  stricken 
aliens.increases  the  public  burden  through  pauperism  and 
crime,  while  the  bulk  of  the  money  which  the  more  thrifty 
immigrants  accumulate  as  wages  is  returned  to  their  na- 
tive country.  President  Walker  even  argued  that  had 
there  been  no  immigration  to  the  United  States  during 
the  past  century  the  native  element  would  have  increased 
sufficiently  to  have  filled  the  places  at  present  occupied  by 
the  foreign  born  and  their  children. 

1.  Extent  and  Causes  of  Immigration:  The  increas- 
ing importance  of  the  problem  and  the  general  changes  in 
its  character  are  most  clearlj^  reflected  in  the  statistics  of 
immigration  which  have  been  collected  annually  since 
1820.  From  that  time  until  1855  the  figures  relate  to  the 
total  number  of  alien  passengers  arriving,  but  since  the 
latter  date  they  show  only  immigrants  to  the  United 
States.  Cabin  passengers  and  arrivals  from  oNIexico  and 
Canada,  except  such  as  come  from  abroad  through  ports 
of  those  countries  with  the  avowed  intention  of  entering 
the  United  States,  are  not  included.     The  following  table 


70  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

shows    the    general    movement    from     1821    to    1903 
Number  of  Immigrants,  1821-1903 


1821-1830 143,439 

1831-1840 599,125 

1841-1850  1,713,251 

1851-1860 2,598,214 

1861-1870 2,314,824 

1871-1880 3,812,191 


1881-1890 5,246,613 

1891-1900 3,687,564 

1901 487,918 

1902  648,743 

1903 857,046 


Total 21,108,928 


Previous  to  1831  the  immigration  was  very  slight,  but, 
beginning  about  1847,  there  began  a  foreign  influx  which 
was  greater  relatively  to  the  population  of  native  birth 
than  at  any  other  period.  The  causes  of  this  increase 
w^ere  (a)  the  hard  times  in  Germany,  (b)  the  famine  in 
Ireland  and  (c)  the  gold  discoveries  in  California.  It 
was  checked  by  the  panic  of  1857  and,  later,  by  the  Civil 
"War.  The  next  decade  saw  only  a  slight  increase,  but 
from  1881  to  1890  there  arrived  in  this  country  the  largest 
number  of  immigrants  shown  by  any  ten  year  period.  In 
the  figures  for  the  decade  1891-1900  the  effect  of  the  panic 
of  1893  and  the  succeeding  hard  times  is  clearly  seen,  but 
by  1900  immigration  began  to  revive.  The  figures  for 
1902  were  exceeded  only  by  those  for  1881  and  1882,  and 
in  1903  all  previous  records  were  broken. 

In  general,  the  causes  which  induce  immigration  to  the 
United  States  may  be  summed  up  briefly  as,  (a)  the  re- 
publican principles  of  our  government  as  contrasted  with 
the  oppression  of  European  countries,  (b)  the  presence 


IMMIGRATION  71 

here  of  relatives  or  friends,  and  the  ease  and  cheapness  of 
the  voyage,  (e)  the  poverty  of  the  peasant  classes  of  for- 
eign nations  and  (d)  the  economic  prosperity  of  this 
country.  Under  the  first  cause  should  be  included  the 
desire  for  religious  as  well  as  for  political  freedom,  and 
also  the  immigration,  such  as  that  of  the  Russian  Jews, 
which  is  a  forced  escape  from  persecution.  That  the 
second  cause  is  a  potent  one  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  from 
40  to  55  per  cent,  of  all  the  immigrants  come  on  tickets 
actually  bought  in  this  country  by  relatives  or  friends, 
while  fully  65  per  cent,  have  their  transportation  sent 
them  in  tickets  or  money.  In  general,  the  prosperity  of 
this  country  has  a  greater  influence  than  the  over-popula- 
tion and  poverty  of  foreign  countries,  for  the  volume  of 
immigration  responds  quickly  to  fluctuations  in  industrial 
conditions  in  the  United  States.  This  is  due  largely  to  the 
fact  that  in  times  of  depression  foreigners  already  here 
are  not  able  to  send  for  their  relatives,  and  are  not  likely 
to  write  hopeful  letters,  such  as  would  naturally  induce 
immigration.  There  is  little  encouragement,  however,  in 
this  fact,  for  "in  times  of  depression  the  falling  off  is 
largely  of  the  most  skilled  and  industrious  races,  whereas 
the  unskilled  laborers  are  the  last  to  be  affected.  "^ 

Some  years  ago  a  common  cause  of  immigration  was  the 
effort  of  European  countries  to  get  rid  of  their  undesirable 
population,  and  the  charitable  assistance  given  to  paupers 
and  criminals  to  emigrate.  Though  this  practice  is  now 
officially  restricted  or  prohibited,  it  is  believed  that,  un- 

iWard,  "The  Immigration  Problem,"  Charities,  Vol.  XII,  p.  139. 


72  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

officially,  a  considerable  amount  of  such  assistance  is  still 
given.  Another  potent  cause  of  immigration,  and  one 
which  has  brought  a  very  undesirable  class  to  this  coun- 
tr}^  has  been  the  solicitation,  now  somewhat  ineffectually 
prohibited  by  law,  of  the  agents  of  transportation  com- 
panies. In  the  early  days  there  Avas  a  process  of  natural 
selection  in  immigration  which  eliminated  the  less  desira- 
ble elements,  for  it  required  energy,  prudence  and  courage 
to  accomplish  the  transfer  from  one  country  to  another. 
With  the  increasing  activity  of  transportation  companies, 
however,  and  the  comparative  ease  of  immigration,  it  is 
now,  as  a  general  rule,  the  least  prosperous  classes  that  are 
attracted  to  this  country, 

2.  Race  and  Nativity  of  Immigrants:  The  race  and 
nativity  of  the  incoming  aliens  is  of  even  greater  impor- 
tance than  their  numbers,  for  upon  this  depends  the 
quality,  social  and  economic,  of  the  element  which  is  added 
to  the  population. 

Up  to  1890  the  natives  of  Germany,  Ireland,  Great 
Britain,  Canada  and  Newfoundland,  Norway,  Sweden 
and  Denmark  contributed  12,853,828  out  of  a  total  immi- 
gration of  15,427,657.  For  the  decades  ending  in  1860 
and  1870  they  contributed  more  than  nine-tenths  of  the 
immigration,  for  that  ending  in  1880  more  than  four- 
fifths,  for  that  ending  in  1890  about  three-fourths,  for 
that  ending  in  1900  only  a  little  more  than  two-fifths  and 
for  the  three  succeeding  years  only  a  little  more  than  one- 
fifth. 

Of  the  northern  group,  Ireland  and  Germany  have 


IMMIGRATION 


73 


Proportion  op  the  Total  Number  of  Immigrants  Furnished 

BY  Each  of  the  Principal  European  Countries  and 

BY  All  Other  Countries 


Countries 

1901- 
1903 

1891- 
1900 

1881- 
1890 

1871- 

1880 

1861- 
1870 

1851- 
1860 

1821- 
1850 

Aggregate.  .  .  . 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Canada  and  New- 
foundland .  .  . 

Germany.  ... 

Great  Britain  .  . 

Ireland 

Norway,  Sweden 
and  Denmark . 

Total  .  .  . 

0.1 
4.5 
3.3 

4.8 

8.6 

0.1 
13.7 

7.3 
10.6 

10.1 

7.5 

27.7 
15.4 
12.5 

12.5 

13.6 
25.6 
19.5 

15.5 

8.6 

6.7 
34.0 

26.2 

18.8 

5.4 

2.3 
36.6 
16.3 
35.2 

0.9 

2.3 
24.2 
15.0 
42.3 

0.7 

21.3 

41.8 

75.6 

82.8 

91.1 

91.3 

84.5 

Austria-Hungary 

Italy 

Russia    and    Po- 
land   

Total  .  .  . 

24.7 
27.3 

16.5 

16.1 

17.7 

16.3 

6.7 
5.9 

5.0 

2.6 

2.0 

1.8 

0.4 
0.5 

0.2 

0.3 
0.1 

0.2 
0.1 

68.5 

50.1 

17.6 

6.4 

1.1 

0.4 

0.3 

All  other    coun- 
tries   

10.2 

8.1 

6.8 

10.8 

7.8 

8.3 

15.2 

contributed  most  freely  to  the  stream  of  immigration. 
From  1821  to  1850  the  Irish  alone  contributed  more  than 
two-fifths  of  the  total,  and  during  the  next  ten  years  they 
furnished  nearly  as  many  again  as  during  this  thirty 
year  period.  After  1860,  however,  there  was  a  rapid  de- 
crease both  in  the  numbers  and  in  the  relative  importance 


74  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

of  the  Irish  immigrants.  The  Germans,  on  the  other 
hand,  constituted  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  immigration 
prior  to  1850  and  more  than  one-third  in  each  of  the  next 
two  decades,  outstripping  Ireland  as  early  as  1860.  The 
proportion  of  German  immigrants  from  1871  to  1880  and 
from  1881  to  1890  was  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  total. 
In  the  decade  from  1891  to  1900,  however,  it  fell  to  a  little 
over  one-eighth,  and  in  the  three  years  from  1901  to  1903 
to  less  than  one-twentieth,  slightly  less  than  the  propor- 
tion of  Irish,  and  little  more  than  one-half  that  of  the 
Norwegians,  Swedes  and  Danes  combined. 

The  great  decline  in  the  immigration  of  the  northern 
races  has  been  offset  by  a  very  material  increase  in  that 
from  the  countries  of  eastern  and  southern  Europe, 
especially  from  Austria-Hungary,  Italy  and  Russia, 
countries  which  had  furnished  prior  to  1880,  a  very  small 
amount  of  immigration.  The  natives  of  these  countries, 
though  in  1870  representing  altogether  about  one  per 
cent,  of  the  total,  amounted  in  the  decade  ending  in  1890 
to  over  17  per  cent.,  while  in  the  decade  ending  in  1900 
they  represented  more  than  half,  and  in  the  three  years 
from  1901  to  1903,  nearly  seven-tenths  of  the  total  immi- 
gration. "The  entrance  into  our  political,  social,  and 
industrial  life,  of  such  vast  masses  of  peasantry,  degraded 
below  our  utmost  conceptions,  is  a  matter  which  no 
intelligent  patriot  can  look  upon  without  the  gravest 
apprehension  and  alarm.  These  people  have  no  history 
behind  them  which  is  of  a  nature  to  give  encouragement. 
They  have  none  of  the  inherited  instincts  and  tendencies 


IMMIGRATION  75 

which  made  it  comparatively  easy  to  deal  with  the  immi- 
gration of  the  olden  time.  They  are  beaten  men  from 
beaten  races;  representing  the  worst  failures  in  the 
struggle  for  existence.  Centuries  are  against  them,  as 
centuries  were  on  the  side  of  those  who  formerly  came 
to  us."i 

3.  Distribution  of  Immigrants:  Upon  the  geograph- 
ical distribution  of  immigrants  depends,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  the  intensity  of  their  competition  with  native 
laborers.  If  the  aliens  were  evenly  distributed  through 
the  country  their  influence  upon  labor  conditions  would 
be  slight  as  compared  with  that  of  American  workmen, 
and  the  burdens  imposed  by  immigration  could  be  borne 
with  ease,  while  its  advantages  would  be  greatly  increased. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  in  1900  nearly  seven- 
eighths,  86.2  per  cent.,  of  all  the  foreign  born  in  the 
United  States  w^ere  found  in  the  North  Atlantic  and 
North  Central  divisions,  only  8.2  per  cent,  in  the  "Western 
division  and  only  5.6  per  cent,  in  both  the  Southern 
divisions  combined.  The  proportion  of  immigrants  in 
both  of  the  Southern  divisions,  moreover,  has  steadily 
decreased  since  1850,  w^hile  that  in  the  North  Central 
division  steadily  increased  until  1900  when,  for  the  first 
time  since  1870,  it  fell  behind  that  in  the  North  Atlantic 
division.  During  the  last  decade,  indeed,  the  foreign 
born  in  the  North  Central  division  increased  only  2.4  per 
cent.,  while  the  foreign  born  in  the  North  Atlantic  divi- 


*  Walker,  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  "Restriction  of  Im- 
migration," p.  447. 


76  1..B0R  PROBLEMS 

sion  increased  22.5  per  cent.  The  North  Atlantic  division 
is  the  only  one  which  shows  as  large  a  proportional  in- 
crease in  the  foreign  born  as  in  the  native  element  in  the 
population,  the  latter  having  increased  from  1890  to  1900 
20.5  per  cent. 

As  for  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  various 
races  and  nationalities  it  is  observable  that,  for  the  most 
part,  the  natives  of  those  countries  which  furnished  the 
earlier  immigration  are  more  evenly  distributed  between 
the  two  Northern  divisions,  in  several  cases  tending  to 
concentrate  in  the  North  Central  division,  while  the 
natives  of  the  countries  which  have  furnished  the  recent 
immigration  are,  generally,  concentrated  in  the  North 
Atlantic  division.  Of  the  persons  of  German  birth,  for 
"istance,  more  than  one-half,  54.9  per  cent.,  were  found 
in  1900  in  the  North  Central  division,  while  that  division 
contained  64.5  per  cent,  of  the  Swedes  and  84.9  per  cent, 
of  the  Norwegians.  Of  the  Austrians,  on  the  other  hand, 
62.0  per  cent.,  of  the  Hungarians  73.0  per  cent.,  and  of  the 
Italians  72.7  per  cent,  were  found  in  the  North  Atlantic 
division. 

The  change  in  character  of  the  immigration  is  evidently 
accountable  for  the  greater  concentration  in  the  North- 
east, which  is  the  region  of  large  cities  and  comparatively 
dense  population,  as  contrasted  with  the  North  Central 
division,  which  is  largely  devoted  to  agriculture  and 
receives  principally  farmers  and  those  Avho  are  attracted 
by  a  pioneer  rural  life.  The  immigrants  from  eastern 
and  southern  Europe  not  only  bring  with  them  less  money 


IMMIGRATION  77 

than  those  from  the  western  and  northern  countries,  and 
are,  consequently,  less  able  to  travel  to  the  interior,  but 
they  are  more  clannish,  are  slower  to  learn  the  language 
and  customs  of  the  country,  and  are  less  inclined  toward 
country  life.  While  many  of  them  state  their  occupation 
as  that  of  farmer  very  few  were  anything  more  than 
farm  laborers  in  their  native  land,  and  it  was  to  escape 
from  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  that  they  emigrated. 
They  are,  consequently,  unwilling  to  enter  farming 
occupations  in  this  country.  INloreover,  they  have,  for 
the  most  part,  been  accustomed  to  living  in  villages  and 
going  out  to  their  work  ;  they  are  sociable  people  ;  and  the 
loneliness  and  isolation  of  American  farm  life  is  extremely 
distasteful  to  them.  In  the  city  they  feel  that,  if  neces- 
sary, they  can  fall  back  upon  friends  or  the  numerous 
charitable  organizations  for  assistance.  Finally,  the 
money  wages  of  farm  laborers  are  comparatively  low,  and 
the  immigrants  are  intensely  anxious  for  immediate 
monetary  returns  for  their  work.  They  settle  in  groups, 
either  in  city  slums,  where  certain  districts  are  given  over 
to  the  possession  of  particular  nationalities,  or  in  mining 
villages,  where  they  are  even  more  isolated  and  out  of  the 
current  of  American  life. 

That  the  concentration  of  the  immigrants  from  the 
southern  and  eastern  European  countries  in  the  North 
Atlantic  division  is  due  to  their  preference  for  city  life 
is  shown  by  a  study  of  the  percentages  of  foreign  born  by 
countries  of  birth  in  the  160  principal  cities  of  the  United 
States,  as  in  the  following  table : 


78 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


Percent. 

in  160 
principal 

cities 

Per  cent. 

in  160 
principal 

cities 

Total  foreign  born.  . 

49.5 

France  

England      

Scotland 

Holland 

Canada  (English).  . 
Canada  (French)  . 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

Wales 

49.5 
46.3 
46.0 

44.1 
40.0 
37.7 
36.3 
35.3 
32.3 
28.1 
22.4 
7.1 
42.6 

Russia 

Poland  (German).  . 
Poland  (Russian)  .  . 
Italy 

74.9 
68.7 
62.7 
62.4 
62.0 
54.3 
53.5 
53.4 
50.9 
50.3 
50.2 

Ireland 

Bohemia 

Austria 

Hungary 

Poland  (unknown)  . 
Poland  (Austrian)    . 
Germany 

Denmark 

Norway 

Mexico 

Other  countries  .  .  . 

Although  these  cities  contained  in  1900  only  about 
one-fourth  of  the  total  population  of  the  United  States, 
they  included  nearly  one-half  of  the  foreign  born.  More- 
over, the  foreigners  constituted  26.1  per  cent,  of  the  total 
city  population  as  against  9.4  per  cent,  of  the  population 
of  the  remainder  of  the  country.  The  city  of  New  York 
has  76.9  per  cent,  of  its  inhabitants  of  foreign  parentage 
and  37.0  per  cent,  foreign  born  ;  Chicago  has  77.4  per  cent, 
of  foreign  parentage  and  34.6  per  cent,  foreign  born ; 
Philadelphia  runs  considerably  lower  with  54.9  per  cent, 
persons  of  foreign  parentage  and  22.8  per  cent,  foreign 
born ;  while  St.  Louis  shows  the  effect  of  former  immigra- 


IMMIGRATION  79 

tion  in  61.0  per  cent,  of  foreig:n  parentage  and  only  19.4 
per  cent,  foreign  born ;  and  Boston  rises  again  to  72.2 
per  cent,  of  foreign  parentage  and  35.1  per  cent,  foreign 
born.  It  is  apparent  that  the  large  cities  are  "the  con- 
gested places  in  the  industrial  body  which  check  the  free 
circulation  of  labor  to  those  parts  where  it  is  most  needed 
and  where  it  can  be  most  benefited. '  '^ 

4.  Economic  Aspects  of  Immigration:  The  uneven 
distribution  of  the  foreign  element  obviously  contributes 
largely  to  the  objectionable  economic  effects  of  immigra- 
tion, and  makes  of  it  an  important  factor  in  the  labor 
problem.  The  introduction  of  large  numbers  of  aliens 
into  the  labor  market  of  a  somewhat  narrowly  limited 
region  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  cause  an  oversupply  of 
workmen  and  to  produce  more  or  less  serious  disturbances 
unless,  at  the  same  time,  business  expansion  takes  place 
with  considerable  rapidity.  "Providing  this  expansion 
occurs  sufficiently  fast,  there  is  no  overcrowding  of  the 
labor  market  by  increase  in  the  number  of  laborers. 
The  new  resources  and  new  investments  demand  new 
labor,  and  if  the  expansion  is  strong  enough  the  new  labor 
as  well  as  the  existing  labor  may  secure  advances  in  wages, 
though  not  necessarily  as  great  an  advance  as  would  have 
been  secured  if  the  supply  of  labor  had  been  smaller.  "^ 

When,  however,  the  aliens  have  almost  universally  a 
lower  standard  of  life  than  the  native  workmen,  a  new 
and  overwhelmingly  important  element  is  introduced  and 

^Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner-Oeneral  of  Immigration,  1903, 
p.  00. 

-Industrial  Contiuission,  XIX,  p.  963. 


80  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

far  more  serious  consequences  are  to  be  anticipated. 
Either  the  standards  of  the  foreigners  must  be  raised  or 
the  standards  of  the  Americans  must  be  lowered,  and,  in 
view  of  the  well  known  law  that  the  plane  of  competition 
tends  to  sink  to  the  level  of  its  lowest  factor,  the  issue  can 
not  but  excite  apprehension. 

(a)  The  Standard  of  Life:  The  lower  standard  of 
living"  of  the  European  laborers,  particularly  those  of  the 
eastern  and  southern  nations,  needs  no  proof.  The  cost 
of  living  in  Europe  is,  of  course,  much  lower  than  in  this 
country,  but  the  difference  in  prices  is  not  as  great  as  in 
wages.  Italian  immigrants,  for  instance,  claim  that 
while  wages  in  the  United  States  are  five  times  as  high, 
■'^e  cost  of  living  is  only  three  times  as  great  as  in  Italy, 
riie  Italian,  then,  has  been  accustomed  to  live  on  three- 
fifths  the  real  wages  of  the  American  laborer  with  whom 
he  comes  to  compete. 

There  is,  however,  another  element  which  is  difficult  of 
measurement,  and  that  is  the  change  in  the  standard  of 
living  which  is  essential  in  order  to  work  in  this  country, 
owing  to  the  greater  speed  and  intensity  of  exertion  re- 
quired. For  this  reason  the  alien  is  obliged  to  begin  at  a 
lower  rate  of  pay,  and  only  when  he  has  raised  his  stand- 
ard of  life,  at  least  so  far  as  the  physical  necessities  are 
concerned,  is  he  capable  of  full  competition  with  the 
American  laborer. 

The  problem  involved  in  the  conflict  of  these  different 
standards  of  life  is,  of  course,  greatly  aggravated  by  the 
unequal   distribution   of   the   immigrants,   not   only   by 


IMMIGRATION  81 

localities  and  urban  centers,  but  also  by  occupations. 
Certain  industries,  usually  those  requirino:  little  or  no 
skill,  attract  large  numbers  of  foreigners  from  nearly 
every  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  competition  becomes  so 
intense  that  the  native  element  is  practically  driven  out. 
Such  industries  are,  for  instance,  coal  mining  and  the- 
manufacture  of  clothing.  The  employees  of  the  Colorado 
Fuel  and  Iron  Company,  for  instance,  are  said  to  belong 
to  thirty-two  nationalities  and  to  speak  twenty-seven 
languages. 

(h)  Occupations:  The  vast  majority  of  immigrants 
to  the  United  States  are  unskilled  laborers.  In  the  fiscal 
year  ending  June  30,  1903,  for  instance,  nearly  one-half, 
46.5  per  cent.,  of  all  the  immigrants  to  this  country  were 
either  laborers  or  farm  laborers,  and  only  about  14.5  per 
cent,  were  skilled  workmen,  nearly  one-fourth,  23.3  per 
cent.,  including  women  and  children,  being  without  occu- 
pation. As  a  result,  much  of  the  rough  work  of  the 
country  is  practically  given  over  to  the  foreign  born. 

In  estimating  the  competition  of  foreign  with  native 
labor,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  take  into  consideration, 
not  only  the  immigrants  themselves,  but  their  children. 
Though  the  second  generation  of  immigrants  doubtless  * 
has  a  somewhat  higher  standard  of  life  than  the  first,  it 
practically  doubles  the  number  of  workers  of  foreign 
extraction  and  the  influence  of  its  competition  is  more 
wide-spread,  if  less  intense,  than  that  of  the  first  genera- 
tion. That  the  foreign  element  is  of  great  importance 
industrially  is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  in  1900,  of  all  the 
6 


S2  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

gainful  workers  in  continental  United  States,  11,166,361. 
or  nearly  two-fifths  (38.4  per  cent.),  were  of  foreign 
parentage,  about  one-half  of  them  being  foreign  born  and 
the  other  half  born  in  this  country. 

The  competition  of  the  foreign  born  in  industry  is 
greater  than  their  numerical  strength  as  compared  with 
that  of  the  native  born.  The  foreign  born,  for  instance, 
though  forming  in  1900  only  17.5  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population  10  years  of  age  and  over,  formed  20.1  per  cent, 
of  the  persons  engaged  in  gainful  occupations.  This 
fact  is  due  largely,  of  course,  to  the  greater  proportion  of 
adults  among  the  foreigners.  The  foreign  born  persons 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  however,  constituted,  in 
1900,  57.7  per  cent.,  and  the  native  born  gainfully  occu- 
pied only  48.6  per  cent,  of  the  population  10  years  of  age 
and  over.  Evidently  a  part  of  this  difference  reflects  the 
comparative  poverty  of  the  foreign  born  and  their  greater 
tendency  to  engage  in  gainful  occupations,  especially  in 
the  younger  age  groups.  Of  all  persons  of  foreign  par- 
entage, moreover,  including  both  the  foreign  born  and 
their  children,  42.9  per  cent.,  as  compared  with  35.8  per 
cent,  of  all  persons  of  native  parentage,  were  gainfully 
employed.  The  contrast  shown  here  is  the  more  marked 
because  the  comparison  is  made  with  the  entire  population 
and  not  with  the  population  10  years  of  age  and  over. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  relative  importance  of  the  foreign 
born  in  gainful  occupations  has  decreased  since  1890,  the 
percentage  for  that  year  being  22.5,  though  if  1900  be 
compared  with  1880  it  is  found  that  the  percentages  are 


IMMIGRATION  83 

precisely  the  same,  20.1.  Evidently  th^  immigration  of 
these  twenty  years  failed  to  increase  tlje  relative  impor- 
tance of  the  foreign  born  in  the  worlciuci:  population. 

As  for  the  occupations  of  the  fcre!§^  born,  in  1900  they 
formed  nearly  one-third,  30.8  pei  cent.,  of  all  the  gainful 
workers  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits,  26.9 
per  cent,  in  domestic  and  personal  service,  19. G  per  cent, 
in  trade  and  transportation,  11.5  per  cent,  in  professional 
service,  and  10.5  per  cent,  in  agricultural  pursuits.  The 
proportion  of  foreign  born  has  decreased  since  1890,  and 
also  since  1880,  in  every  occupation  group.  In  manu- 
facturing and  mechanical  pursuits  and  domestic  and 
personal  service  the  foreign  born  evidently  obtain  their 
greatest  prominence.  These  two  groups,  indeed,  absorbed 
in  1900  not  far  from  two-thirds,  62.9  per  cent.,  of  all  the 
foreign  born  gainful  workers. 

The  persons  of  foreign  parentage,  though  more  evenly 
distributed  through  the  various  occupation  groups  than 
the  foreign  born,  formed  only  21.1  per  cent,  of  all  persons 
engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  and  32.2  per  cent,  of  all 
in  professional  service,  as  compared  w'ith  56.2  per  cent, 
in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits,  45.3  per  cent. 
in  trade  and  transportation,  and  43.4  per  cent,  in  domestic 
and  personal  service.  Among  the  occupations  of  the  per- 
sons of  foreign  parentage,  then,  trade  and  transportation 
is  of  even  greater  importance  than  domestic  and  personal 
service. 

The  tendency  of  immigrants  and  their  children  towards 
the  various  occupation  groups  differs  widely,  however, 


84  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

with  the  race  and  natioiialit}',  as  appears  in  the  table  on 
the  opposite  page,  which  gives  the  per  cent,  distribution, 
by  main  classes,  of  persons  of  each  specified  parentage 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  in  1900 . 

In  general,  the  nationalities  w^hich  furnished  the  earlier 
immigration,  as  the  English,  Scotch,  Irish  and  German, 
are  much  more  widely  distributed  through  the  various 
occupations  than  those  which  are  most  largely  represented 
in  the  recent  immigration  movement.  These  latter  tend 
to  concentrate  in  a  few  callings,  which  become  almost 
characteristic  of  the  race.  In  1900,  for  instance,  more 
than  one-half,  52.5  per  cent.,  of  the  French  Canadian  fe- 
males were  textile  mill  operatives,  while  somewhat  more 
than  one-third,  36.0  per  cent,  of  the  Russian  and  a  little 
more  than  one-third,  33.9  per  cent.,  of  the  Italian  workers 
of  this  sex  were  either  tailoresses,  dressmakers,  or 
seamstresses. 

The  general  tendency,  however,  among  most  foreign 
nationalities,  is  towards  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
pursuits  and  domestic  and  personal  service,  the  males 
tending  to  concentrate  in  the  former  and  the  females  in 
the  latter.  It  is  noticeable,  moreover,  that  the  foreign 
element  is  also  represented  by  a  somewhat  larger  percent- 
age than  the  native  in  trade  and  transportation.  The 
greatest  contrasts  between  the  native  and  foreign  elements 
are  seen  in  agricultural  pursuits,  which  contained  45.7 
per  cent,  of  all  the  gainful  workers  of  native  parentage 
and  only  19.7  per  cent,  of  all  those  of  foreign  parentage, 
and  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits,  which 


IMMIGRATION 


85 


Occupational  Distribution  op  Breadwinners:  1900 


Parkntagb 

All 
occupa- 
tions 

Affri- 
eultural 
pursuits 

Profes- 
sional 
service 

Per 

Domes- 
tic and 
personal 
service 

Trade 

and 
trans- 
portation 

Manu- 
facturing 
and    me- 
chanical 
pursuits 

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

cent. 

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

Percent. 

Of   native    pa- 
rentage.     .  . 

100.0 

45.7 

4.8 

17.6 

14.6 

17.3 

Of  foreign    pa- 
rentage. .  .  . 

100.0 

19.7 

3.6 

21.7 

19.3 

35.7 

Austria    .  .  .  . 

100.0 

8.9 

1.8 

24.7 

13.7 

50.9 

Bohemia  .  .  .  . 

100.0 

30.1 

1.7 

18.4 

10.6 

39.2 

Canada    (En 
glish).      .  .  . 

100.0 

21.1 

6.1 

20.4 

21.9 

30.5 

Canada(French) 

100.0 

13.3 

1.7 

18.1 

11.9 

55.1 

Denmark.  .  ,  . 

100.0 

39.4 

2.6 

19.7 

14.3 

24,0 

England  and 
Wales  .  .  .  . 

100.0 

19.6 

5.8 

14.0 

20.6 

40.0 

France  .... 

100.0 

21.4 

5.8 

20.7 

18.9 

33.2 

Germany.  .  .  . 

100.0 

24.3 

3.1 

18.6 

19.3 

34.7 

Hungary.  .  .  . 

100.0 

3.3 

1.3 

27.5 

11.0 

56.9 

Ireland 

100.0 

11.9 

3.9 

27.4 

22.5 

34.3 

Italy 

100.0 

6.0 

1.5 

39.5 

18.3 

34.7 

Norway 

100.0 

47  3 

28 

19.3 

12.1 

18.6 

Poland 

100.0 

10.8 

1  1 

30.0 

12.1 

46.0 

Russia 

100.0 

10.0 

2.3 

11.3 

28.2 

48.4 

Scotland  .  .  .  . 

100.0 

18.5 

6.3 

14.0 

21.6 

39.7 

Sweden 

100.0 

27.4 

2.1 

35.6 

12.9 

32.0 

Switzerland  .  . 

100.0 

35.1 

3.5 

18.4 

13.7 

29.3 

Other  countries 

100.0 

23.6 

2.3 

33.0 

15.8 

26.4 

Of  mixed  for- 

eign   parent- 
age   

100.0 

17.3 

6.3 

17.5 

24.3 

34.6 

86  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

contained  35.7  per  cent,  of  all  the  gainful  Avorkers  of 
foreign  parentage  and  only  17.3  per  cent,  of  those  of 
native  parentage.  This  difference  may  be  logically  con- 
nected with,  and  is  doubtless  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  in 
the  Northern  states,  which  contained  the  largest  popula- 
tion of  immigrants,  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
piirsuis  are  prominent,  while  the  Southern  states,  in 
which  the  foreign  element  is  of  slight  importance,  are 
principally  agricultural.  It  should  be  remembered,  also, 
that  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pursuits  include 
mining,  an  occupation  which  employs  large  numbers  of 
foreigners  and  their  children. 

This  concentration  of  the  foreign  element  in  particular 
localities  and  occupations  greatly  intensifies  the  evil 
effects  of  their  competition  with  native  laborers,  and  also 
with  each  other.  If,  however,  the  problem  is  regarded  as 
less  serious  when  it  concerns  the  races  which  furnished 
the  earlier  immigration,  the  situation  is  somewhat  im- 
proved, for  even  in  1900  two-thirds,  or  67.2  per  cent.,  of 
the  total  number  of  gainful  workers  of  "foreign  parentage 
were  of  British  or  German  extraction,  29.5  per  cent, 
being  of  German,  21.7  per  cent,  of  Irish  and  16.0  per  cent, 
of  English  parentage,  including  in  the  latter  the  English 
Canadians,  Scotch  and  Welsh.  Of  the  races  which  have 
furnished  the  recent  immigration,  moreover,  the  persons 
of  Scandinavian  parentage,  including  Norwegians, 
Swedes  and  Danes,  and  representing  a  thoroughly  desira- 
ble element,  constituted,  in  1900,  7.8  per  cent,  of  the  total 
number  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage,  while  the  French 


IMMIGRATION  87 

Canadians  constituted  only  3.1  per  cent.,  the  Italians  2.9 
per  cent.,  the  Poles  and  Russians  each  2.2  per  cent.,  the 
Austrians  1.7  per  cent.,  and  the  Bohemians  1.2  per  cent. 
It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  the  British  and  German 
elements  were  of  much  more  importance  in  the  second 
generation  than  in  the  first,  constituting  79.5  per  cent,  of 
the  workers  of  foreign  parentage  born  in  this  country  and 
only  56.1  per  cent,  of  those  born  abroad. 

(c)  ^yages  and  Unemploymenf :  Although  it  is  evi- 
dent that  immigration  has  had  a  demoralizing  effect  upon 
certain  industries,  it  is  impossible  to  prove  statistically 
that  the  influx  of  foreigners  has  depressed  the  general 
level  of  wages  or  produced  widespread  unemployment. 
The  close  connection  previously  shown  between  the  volume 
of  immigration  and  the  cycles  of  business  prosperity  and 
depression  serves  effectually  to  obscure  any  close  relation 
that  may  exist  between  immigration  and  wages  or  unem- 
ploj'ment,  for  these  cycles  have  a  greater  influence  than 
can  be  attributed  to  the  competition  of  alien  labor.  At 
best  the  problem  of  separating  immigration  from  the  other 
causes  affecting  Avages  and  unemployment,  such  as  the 
introduction  of  machinery  and  division  of  labor,  the  com- 
petition of  women  and  children,  country  work,  and  labor 
organization,  is  an  extremely  difficult  one,  especially  as  it 
is  found  that  the  alien  standard  of  living  usually  exerts 
its  greatest  influence  in  precisely  those  occupations  where 
other  causes  also  tend  to  depress  wages. 

It  may  be  safely  stated,  however,  that  the  rise  of  wages 
during  the  past  century  has  taken  place  in  spite  of  the 


gg  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

lowering  influence  of  immigration  rather  than  because 
of  the  development  resulting  from  the  foreign  contribu- 
tions to  the  labor  force  of  this  country.  At  the  present 
time  ' '  immigration  and  the  tariff  together  prevent  wages 
from  rising  with  the  rise  in  prices  of  commodities  and  cost 
of  living.  This  permits  profits  to  increase  more  than 
wages,  to  be  followed  by  overproduction  and  stoppage  of 
business.  *  *  *  Thus  it  is  that  immigration,  instead  of 
increasing  the  production  of  wealth  by  a  steady,  healthful 
growth,  joins  with  other  causes  to  stimulate  a  feverish 
overproduction  followed  by  a  collapse. '  '^ 

The  chief  force  to  be  relied  upon  in  counteracting  the 
evil  effects  of  the  unequal  competition  between  workmen 
who  possess  wholly  different  standards  of  life  is  the  labor 
organization.  First,  in  those  trades  in  which  skill  is  an 
important  factor  and  in  which  machinery  has  had  little 
influence,  labor  organizations  have  been  able  to  practically 
force  out  the  immigrant.  Second,  in  the  comparatively 
Unskilled  occupations  "organization  is  the  only  means  by 
which  the  immigrants  themselves  can  rise  to  the  standards 
of  those  whom  they  displace."  In  the  very  industries, 
however,  in  which  the  influence  of  the  labor  organizations 
is  most  needed,  their  formation  and  growth  are  most 
hindered  by  the  multitude  of  disintegrating  factors 
directly  based  on  immigration,  such  as  differences  in  race, 
education  and  religion.  Moreover,  the  new  immigrants 
"have  largely  come  from  despotic  countries  where  or- 


1  Commons,    "Social    and    Industrial    I'roblems,"    Chamauquan,    VoL 
XXXIX,  pp.  21-22. 


IMMIGRATION  gg 

ganization  was  put  down  by  the  military  power  and  where 
violence  is  the  accepted  remedy  for  oppression."^ 
Wherever  labor  organizations  have  been  successfully 
maintained  among  foreigners,  however,  they  have  been 
important  factors  in  effecting  the  assimilation  of  their 
members. 

5.  Special  Prohlems:  The  special  problems  which  are 
here  to  be  discussed  are  four  in  number,  illiteracy,  the 
padrone  system,  the  so-called  "birds  of  passage,"  and 
Canadian  immigration. 

(a)  Illiteracy:  The  ability  to  read  and  write  is  an 
important  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  American  laborer, 
and,  though  illiteracy  is  also  a  social  question,  it  affects 
vitally  the  ability  of  foreigners  to  compete  with  native 
workmen  and  is,  therefore,  a  part  of  the  labor  problem 
involved  in  immigration.  According  to  the  Twelfth  Cen- 
sus 12.9  per  cent,  of  the  foreign  whites  were  illiterate,  as 
compared  with  only  5.7  per  cent,  of  the  native  whites  of 
native  parentage,  and  an  evt^^ ^.mailer  percentage,  1.6,  of 
the  native  whites  of  foreign  parentage.  That  this  is  not 
due  to  the  superior  education  of  the  former  immigrants  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1880  the  percentage  of  illiteracy 
among  the  foreign  whites  was  nearly  as  great  as  in  1900, 
or  12.0  per  cent. 

Clearly  the  children  of  illiterate  immigrants  have 
shown  a  very  strong  tendency,  from  one  cause  or  another, 
to  join  the  literate  classes  of  this  country.  Upon  the 
whole,  then,  it  is  obvious  that  illiteracy  is  only  a  tempo- 

^Industrial  Commission,  XV,   p.   313, 


90  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

rary  problem  of  immigration,  and  one  which  is  practically 
solved  in  the  second  generation.  So  far  as  it  is  an  evil  in 
the  first  generation,  however,  it  is  now  associated  almost 
entirely  with  the  immigrants  from  eastern  Europe,  for  of 
all  the  aliens  who  came  to  the  United  States  from  the  west- 
ern European  countries  during  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1903,  only  3.9  per  cent,  were  illiterate,  the  largest  pro- 
portion of  these  being  from  northern  Italy,  while  of  those 
who  came  from  the  countries  of  eastern  Europe,  including 
the  natives  of  southern  Italy,  37.4  per  cent,  were  illiterate. 

(&)  The  Padrone  System:  The  padrone  system  arose 
during  the  period  of  industrial  recovery  following  the 
Civil  War,  when  the  pressing  demand  for  labor  induced 
a  considerable  amount  of  solicited  immigration.  It 
existed  originally  only  among  the  Italians,  but  has  re- 
cently been  found  among  the  Armenians,  Turks  and 
Greeks.  In  the  early  stages  the  j)adrone  was  the  agent 
of  the  contractor  or  the  rrf^nufaeturer,  and  his  business 
was  to  persuade  his  fellu^i^eountrymen  to  come  to  the 
United  States  under  contract  to  his  employer.  His 
revenue  was  derived  from  commissions  of  various  kinds, 
from  the  men  for  obtaining  employment  for  them,  for 
sending  money  back  to  Italy  and  for  boarding  them  while 
in  this  countrj^,  from  the  manufacturer  for  obtaining 
laborers,  and  from  the  steamship  company  on  their 
passage. 

During  the  decade  1870  to  1880,  however,  when  the 
system  attained  its  greatest  odium,  the  padrone  acted  upon 
his  own  initiative  and  was  himself  the  employer.     He 


IMMIGRATION  91 

would  contract  for  the  labor  of  his  men  for  a  certain 
number  of  years,  and  would  then  farm  them  out  to  any 
one  who  wanted  them,  boarding  them  himself,  receiving 
their  wages,  and  paying  them  a  minimum  sum  at  the  end 
of  the  time. 

Gradually,  under  the  influence  of  the  increase  of 
immigration  and  of  governmental  opposition  to  the  impor- 
tation of  contract  laborers,  the  character  of  the  padrone 
has  changed,  and  now  he  no  longer  induces  immigration, 
but  merely  trades  upon  the  ignorance  and  poverty  of  his 
fellow  countrymen  after  they  have  arrived  in  the  United 
States.  He  finds  employment  for  those  who  can  not  speak 
English  and  have  no  other  way  of  obtaining  work,  and 
makes  his  profit  through  commissions  and  keeping 
boarders.  Usually,  too,  he  works  in  connection  with  an 
Italian  banker  who  keeps  the  small  savings  of  the  immi- 
grant and  furnishes  the  capital  for  the  padrone. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  about  eighty  Italian  banks 
in  New  York  City  alone,  which  can  furnish  men  in  lots  of 
from  fifty  to  one  hundred,  and  in  Chicago  in  1897  it  was 
found  that  21.67  per  cent,  of  the  Italians  of  whom  the 
question  was  asked  stated  that  they  worked  for  a  padrone. 
The  system  is  sometimes  used  in  public  works,  such  as  the 
Erie  Canal,  and  on  railroads  the  employment  of  immi- 
grants through  padroni  is  extensively  practiced. 

( c )  " Birds  of  Passage :"  Of  recent  years  large  num- 
bers of  immigrants  have  come  to  this  country  with  no 
intention  of  settling,  but  merely  in  order  to  earn  enough 
money  to  enable  them  to  return  to  their  native  land  and 


92  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

live  in  comparative  comfort  on  their  savings.  These  are 
the  "birds  of  passage,"  who  come  for  a  season  of  work 
and  then  return,  carrying  back  the  major  part  of  their 
wages.  It  is  stated  by  the  census  authorities  that  of  the 
whole  number  of  immigrants  who  came  during  the  decade 
from  1890  to  1900  very  nearly  one-third  were  not  present 
in  the  country  when  the  census  was  taken  in  June,  1900. 
In  April,  1896,  an  examination  of  Italians  landed  in  New 
York  showed  that  27.7  per  cent,  had  been  in  this  country 
before,  and  in  1903  the  Society  for  the  Protection  of 
Italian  Immigrants  estimated  that  40  per  cent,  of  the 
Italian  men  who  landed  in  New  York  were  not  new  ar- 
rivals. The  immigrants  from  Austria-Hungary,  as  well 
as  the  Italians,  show  a  decided  tendency  to  return  to  their 
native  country.  "Charities"  reports  that  during  the 
calendar  year  1903  the  emigration  from  the  United 
States  to  Europe  amounted  to  28  or  30  per  cent,  of  the 
total  immigration  for  the  year.  The  Canadians,  also, 
come  in  large  numbers  during  the  busy  season,  returning 
when  work  is  slack.  It  is  estimated  that  from  fifty  to 
seventy  thousand  people  come  annually  from  Canada  in 
this  way. 

(d)  Canadian  Immigration:  The  immigration  of 
Europeans  through  Canada  presents  another  peculiar 
problem,  because  of  the  comparative  ease  with  which  the 
United  States  immigration  inspectors  can  be  evaded,  and 
the  consequent  entrance  by  this  route  of  large  numbers 
of  undesirable  aliens.  In  Montreal  recently  there  was 
exposed    a    regularly    organized    system    of    smuggling 


IMMIGRATION  93 

diseased  immigrants  across  the  American  border.  The 
commissioner  at  New  York,  moreover,  reports  "as  a  fre- 
quent occurrence  the  recognition  of  aliens  on  the  streets 
of  that  city  by  the  officials  who  had  assisted  in  their 
deportation,"  and  "repeated  instances  have  occurred  of 
deportation  of  aliens  who,  after  rejection  at  a  port  of  this 
country,  have  secured  entrance  by  returning  through 
Canada,  and,  becoming  public  charges  after  such  entrance, 
have  been  returned  to  their  own  country  at  the  expense  of 
the  immigration  fund. '  '^  Recently,  however,  Canada  has 
passed  a  law  similar  to  our  own,  providing  for  a  rigid 
inspection  of  all  aliens  landing  at  her  ports,  and  it  is 
believed  that  this  will  serve  to  abate  the  evils  complained 
of  by  the  United  States. 

6.  Legislation:  Though  there  were  earlier  laws  pro- 
hibiting the  entrance  into  this  country  of  various  classes 
of  persons  considered  dangerous  to  the  public  welfare, 
the  first  general  immigration  act  was  passed  in  1882. 
The  contract  labor  laws  were  enacted  in  1885  and  in  1887 ; 
another  general  act  in  1891 ;  in  1893  an  administrative 
act;  and  in  1903  the  general  codifying  act  which  now 
regulates  the  immigration  service.  Through  all  these 
laws  there  has  been  a  steady  progression  towards  the  idea 
of  selection  by  exclusion  and  towards  more  effective 
methods  of  enforcement. 

This  legislation  has  been  designed,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
exclude  the  diseased,  the  criminal  and  the  pauper,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  exclude  the  contract  laborer.     In 

^Industrial  Commission,  XV,  p.  682. 


94  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

other  words,  those  persons  are  excluded  who  are  not  capa- 
ble of  successful  competition,  and  those  are  also  excluded 
who  have  had  the  forethought  to  provide  that  on  landing 
they  shall  have  a  sure  means  of  successful  competition 
with  American  workmen.  It  is  only  when  we  study  the 
history  of  the  laws  and  the  reasons  for  their  enactment 
that  the  cause  of  this  apparently  inexplicable  contradic- 
tion becomes  apparent.  The  contract  labor  laws  have 
been  enacted  at  the  solicitation  of  organized  lal)or,  and  are 
designed  to  prevent  employers  from  breaking  a  strike  of 
native  workmen  by  the  importation  of  foreigners.  In 
case  of  a  strike  the  issue  turns  solely  on  the  ability  of  the 
employer  to  fill  the  places  of  the  strikers,  and,  while  the 
unions  may  control  the  American  labor  market,  it  is  im- 
possible for  them  to  control  the  foreign  labor  market  as 
well.  The  protection  is  similar  to  that  afforded  the 
American  manufacturer  by  means  of  the  tariff. 

The  fundamental  principle  at  the  bottom  of  the  immi- 
gration laws  is  the  protection  of  the  American  citizen, 
(a)  as  a  member  of  society,  from  excessive  burdens  in  the 
support  of  the  dependent,  defective  and  delinquent,  and 
from  the  danger  of  physical  and  social  disease,  and  (b) 
as  a  workman,  from  unequal  competition  with  nation- 
alities and  races  having  a  lower  standard  of  life.  Any 
consideration  of  this  legislation  divides  itself  naturally 
into  two  parts,  a  study  of  the  excluded  classes  and  a 
study  of  the  methods  by  which  these  classes  are  excluded. 

The  classes  of  immigrants  excluded  are:  (1)  convicts, 
except  those  guilty  of  political  offenses,  and  (2)  women 


IMMIGRATION  95 

imported  for  immoral  purposes,  both  excluded  by  the  act 
of  1875;  by  the  act  of  1882  (3)  lunatics,  (4)  idiots,  and 
(5)  persons  likely  to  become  public  charges  ;  by  the  acts  of 
1885  and  1887,  (6)  contract  laborers;  by  the  act  of  1891, 
(7)  paupers,  (8)  persons  afflicted  with  a  loathsome  or  dan- 
gerous contagious  disease,  (9)  polygamists,  (10)  those 
whose  passage  has  been  paid  for  by  others  unless  it  can  be 
conclusively  shown  that  they  do  not  belong  to  any  of  the 
excluded  classes;  and,  finally,  under  the  act  of  1903,  (11) 
epileptics,  (12)  persons  who  have  been  insane  within  five 
years  previous  or  have  ever  had  two  or  more  attacks  of 
insanity,  (13)  professional  beggars,  (14)  anarchists,  or 
all  persons  who  believe  in  or  advocate  the  overthrow  by 
violence  of  government  or  law,  (15)  persons  attempting 
to  bring  in  women  for  immoral  purposes,  and  (16)  persons 
deported  within  a  year  previous  as  contract  laborers. 
The  interpretation  of  the  contract  labor  law  has  led  to  so 
many  difficulties,  and  this  law  has  been  so  broadly  con- 
strued by  the  courts,  that  the  act  of  1903  amplified  the 
language  to  include  "any  offer,  solicitation,  promise,  or 
agreement,  parole  or  special,  expressed  or  implied,  made 
previous  to  the  importation  of  such  alien  to  perform 
labor  or  service  of  any  kind,  skilled  or  unskilled,  in  the 
United  States." 

The  excepted  classes  are,  briefly,  (1)  aliens  who  are  not 
immigrants,  as,  (a)  Canadians  who  cross  the  border  to 
perform  daily  labor  and  return  at  night,  (b)  alien  resi- 
dents, (c)  alien  seamen,  and  (d)  aliens  in  transit  across 
this  country ;  ( 2 )  certain  classes  of  alien  immigrants,  as. 


96  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

(a)  personal  or  domestic  servants,  (b)  relatives  and 
friends  who  are  not  under  contract,  (c)  ministers  and 
college  professors,  (d)  professional  actors,  artists,  lectur- 
ers and  singers,  (e)  persons  belonging  to  any  recognized 
learned  profession,  and  (f)  skilled  laborers,  if  labor  of 
like  kind  unemployed  can  not  be  found  in  this  country. 
The  exception  of  those  classes  of  aliens  who  are  not  immi- 
grants rests  upon  court  decisions. 

The  enforcement  of  the  immigration  laws  is  delegated 
to  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  which,  at  the  beginning  of 
1904,  was  transferred  from  the  Treasury  Department  to 
the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor. 

When  the  immigrants  arrive  in  this  country  they  pass 
in  groups  of  thirt}^,  first  before  the  medical  inspectors, 
who  detain  any  who  may  look  suspicious,  and  then  before 
the  immigration  inspectors,  who  verify  the  manifests 
furnished  by  the  master  of  the  vessel.  There  is  no  appeal 
from  the  adverse  decision  of  the  medical  inspector,  but  if 
the  immigration  inspectors  are  for  any  reason  doubtful 
the  case  is  sent  to  a  Board  of  Special  Inquiry,  the  decision 
of  which  is  final,  except  upon  appeal  to  the  Commissioner- 
General  of  Immigration,  whose  action  is  in  turn  subject  to 
review  bj^  the  Secretary  of  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  right  of  appeal 
is  always  in  favor  of  the  immigrant.  It  is  provided,  how- 
ever, that  any  alien  admitted  into  this  country  in  violation 
of  law,  or  becoming  a  public  charge  from  causes  existing 
prior  to  landing,  may  be  deported  to  the  country  whence 
he  came  within  three  years  after  landing,  at  the  expense 


IMMIGRATION  97 

of  the  transportation  company  or,  if  that  is  impossible,  of 
the  immigration  fund.  The  transportation  company 
which  brought  them  is,  in  general,  obliged  to  bear  the 
whole  expense  of  the  detention  of  debarred  immigrants 
at  the  port  of  landing  and  of  their  deportation. 

In  case  of  a  violation  of  the  contract  labor  law,  the 
importer  is  liable  to  prosecution,  but  the  technicalities  of 
the  law,  and  the  fact  that  the  penalty  in  this  case  is 
imposed  by  the  Federal  courts,  with  an  appeal  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  has  heretofore 
usually  saved  the  importer  from  punishment. 

The  expense  of  regulating  immigration  is  defrayed 
from  the  immigration  fund,  into  which  is  paid  the  head 
tax  of  two  dollars  for  "each  and  every  passenger  not  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada, 
the  Republic  of  Cuba,  or  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico.'* 
This  head  tax  is  nominally  paid  by  the  transportation 
company,  but  practically  is  added  to  the  price  of  passage. 

Transportation  companies  are  forbidded  to  solicit 
immigration  to  the  United  States,  and  by  the  act  of  1903 
are  liable  to  a  penalty  of  $100  for  each  and  every  immi- 
grant brought  to  this  country  afflicted  with  a  contagious 
disease  capable  of  being  detected  at  the  time  of  embarca- 
tion.  This  law  has  had  the  effect  of  making  the  medical 
examination  of  the  steamship  companies  much  more 
thorough. 

The  most  important  movement  for  further  restriction  is 
that  which  favors  the  educational  test,  designed  to  exclude 
the  illiterates.  It  is  urged  in  favor  of  this  test  that  the 
1 


98  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

classes  generally  considered  undesirable  contain  a  large 
proportion  of  illiterates,  that  it  is  exact  and  simple  of 
application,  that  it  could  be  applied  at  the  ports  of  embar- 
cation  and  thereby  avoid  actual  deportation,  that  it  would 
promote  education  among  those  avIio  desire  to  emigrate 
and,  finally,  that  it  would  materially  lessen  immigration. 
The  probable  effect  of  this  test  may  be  seen  by  a  glance  at 
the  table  previously  given  which  shows  the  relative 
illiteracy  of  the  different  races. 

Other  classes  which  it  is  sometimes  considered  desirable 
to  exclude  are,  (a)  persons  charged  with  crime,  (b) 
"those  in  any  way  physically  disabled,  as  well  by  non- 
communicable  as  by  communicable  disease,  or  by  bodily 
deformity,  accidental  or  congenital,"  and  (e)  "all  those 
aliens  who  are  sixty  years  of  age  or  over  unless  they  have 
children  resident  here  and  able  to  provide  for  them. ' ' 

The  principal  administrative  recommendation  made  by 
the  Commissioner-General  is  "that  provision  should  be 
made  for  the  detail  of  competent  medical  officers,  repre- 
senting the  Government,  for  service  at  foreign  ports,  to 
examine  aliens  prior  to  embarcation  for  the  United 
States. ' '  It  is,  finally,  recommended  by  the  Commission- 
er-General of  Immigration  that  legislation  be  directed  to 
the  distribution  of  the  aliens  who  are  admitted,  and  who, 
for  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  the  labor  market 
in  different  localities  and  occupations,  become  congested 
in  city  slums  and  in  sweat  shops,  depriving  employers 
throughout  the  country,  especially  farmers,  of  much 
needed   assistance.     He    recommends    "the    erection   of 


IMMIGRATION  99 

buildings  at  the  various  ports  of  entry,  with  a  view  to  the 
dissemination  among  arriving  aliens  by  Government  or 
State  officers  of  information  that  will  enable  them  to 
locate  at  those  places  in  this  country  where  their  labor 
is  required  and  where  they  can  have  the  best  opportunities 
of  making  homes  for  themselves  and  their  children."^ 
There  are,  however,  good  reasons  to  believe  that  unless 
added  restrictions  are  placed  upon  immigration,  any 
efforts  toward  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  those 
already  here  will  result  merely  in  attracting  more  immi- 
grants to  this  country.  "Immigration  will  increase 
proportionally  to  the  new  opportunities,  just  as  it  in- 
creases when  prosperity  follows  depression. '  '^ 

7.  Chinese  and  Japanese  Immigration:  The  problem 
presented  by  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  aliens  who  come 
to  the  United  States  is  wholly  unlike  that  of  European 
immigration,  for  here  the  differences  in  race  and  civiliza- 
tion are  so  great  that  the  difficulty  of  assimilation  is 
insurmountable.  It  is  not  expected  that  the  Asiatic 
immigrants  will  ever  become  an  integral  part  of  the 
American  people,  as  the  German  arrivals  of  former  years, 
for  example,  have  already  done.  The  problem  resembles 
rather  the  ' '  race ' '  question,  as  we  know  it  in  this  country, 
than  the  problem  of  European  immigration  as  previously 
considered. 

(a)  History  of  the  Problem:  By  1880  the  evils  of 
Chinese  immigration  had  attained  such  alarming  propor- 

^  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner-Oeneral  of  Jmrnigration,  1903, 
p.  122. 
'  Industrial  Commieaion,  XIX,  p.  976. 


100  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

tions  upon  the  Pacific  Coast  that  it  became  necessary  to 
suppress  the  tide  of  coolie  labor  which  threatened  to  drive 
the  white  workers  out  of  California.  As  the  result  of  a 
vigorous  agitation,  the  famous  immigration  treaty  of  1880 
was  framed,  and  in  1882  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  was 
passed  by  Congress.  The  justification  for  this  sweeping 
exclusion  of  the  laboring  class  of  Chinese  is  found  in  the 
exceptional  and  extraordinary  character  of  the  immigra- 
tion, but  it  has  never  been  extended  to  the  Japanese, 
who  enter  the  United  States  on  the  same  terms  as  the 
European  races. 

Following  the  Chinese  influx,  which  was  checked  by 
this  drastic  legislation,  there  began  about  1890  a  large  and 
steady  stream  of  Japanese.  The  latter  have  underbid 
even  the  Chinese  in  the  labor  market  and  have  thus  prac- 
tically destroyed  the  protective  barrier  of  the  exclusion 
law.  In  1893,  1,380  Japanese  entered  this  country,  and 
in  1898,  2,230,  but  by  1900  the  number  had  risen  to  12,635 
and  in  1903  to  19,968.^  The  Chinese  arrivals  in  1882 
numbered  39,579,  and  in  the  previous  year  11,890.  It  is 
evident,  then,  that  the  problem  of  Japanese  immigration 
is  rapidly  attaining  proportions  which  make  it  comparable 
to  Chinese  immigration  at  the  time  of  the  Exclusion  Act. 
It  is  claimed,  moreover,  that  large  numbers  of  both  races 
enter  the  country  clandestinely  across  the  Canadian  and 
Mexican  boundaries,  and,  consequently,  do  not  enter  into 
any  enumeration.     The  Japanese  do  not  colonize  as  do  the 

*  The  war  between  .Japan  and  Russia  has  suddenly  checked  Japanese 
immigration  to  the  United  States,  but  this  is  doubtiess  merely  tem- 
porary. 


IMMIGRATION  101 

Chinese,  but  scatter  through  the  agricultural  districts, 
working  in  the  fields  and  orchards  of  California  and  on 
the  railroads  of  the  West. 

A  great  many  Japanese  come  to  this  country  in  viola- 
tion of  the  contract  labor  law.  There  are  in  Japan 
twelve  so-called  immigration  companies,  which  make  a 
business  of  encouraging  and  recruiting  coolie  immigration 
to  the  United  States.  These  companies  enter  into  a  con- 
tract with  the  immigrant  by  which  it  is  provided  that 
passage  shall  be  secured,  with  the  necessary  passport,  that 
his  expenses  shall  be  paid  while  en  route  and  that  the 
company  shall  return  him  to  Japan  in  case  of  sickness. 
There  is  also  in  the  United  States  an  elaborate  system  of 
boarding  house  keepers  and  Japanese  bosses,  which  is 
merely  a  means  of  evading  the  contract  labor  laws.  The 
difficulty  of  securing  interpreters  other  than  the  Japanese 
themselves  is  a  serious  obstacle  to  the  rigid  enforcement 
of  the  immigration  laws  against  this  race. 

(&)  Numbers  in  the  United  States:  The  actual  num- 
bers of  Chinese  and  Japanese  in  the  United  States, 
however,  are  small  compared  with  the  number  of  Euro- 
peans. In  1900  there  were  only  119,050  Chinese  in  this 
country,  including  25,767  in  Hawaii,  and  representing 
only  a  small  increase  over  the  number  found  in  1880. 
Between  1890  and  1900,  indeed,  there  was  a  decided  de- 
crease, due  wholl}^  to  a  falling  off  of  30.1  per  cent,  in  the 
number  of  Chinese  in  the  Western  division.  Even  now, 
however,  75.4  per  cent,  of  the  Chinese  in  the  United 
States,  exclusive  of  Alaska  and  Hawaii,  are  concentrated 


102  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

in  the  Western  states.  There  has  been  a  gain,  however, 
in  the  number  of  Chinese  in  the  other  divisions,  and  a 
decided  gain  in  the  number  of  Chinese  in  Hawaii. 

The  Japanese,  on  the  other  hand,  have  increased  enor- 
mously, the  number  rising  from  148  in  1880  to  86,000  ia 
1900.  Nearly  three-fourths  of  these,  however,  were  in 
Hawaii  at  the  latter  date,  and  it  is  even  said  that  the  lais- 
sez-faire policy  at  present  pursued  by  the  government 
' '  will  result  in  a  few  years  in  making  the  islands  practi- 
cally Japanese. ' '  In  Hawaii  the  immigrants  from  Japan 
show  a  strong  tendency  to  become  permanent  and  readily 
adopt  occidental  habits,  though  remaining  "intensely 
alien  in  their  sympathies,  religion  and  customs. '  '^  In  the 
United  States  exclusive  of  Alaska  and  Hawaii  there  were 
only  24,326  Japanese,  less  than  five  thousand  more  than 
were  reported  as  immigrants  in  1903.  These  were  concen- 
trated in  the  Western  division.  It  is  maintained, 
however,  that  neither  the  census  nor  the  immigration 
figures  are  correct  with  regard  to  the  Chinese  and  Japan- 
ese in  this  country,  and  that  the  number  is  considerably 
higher  than  is  generally  supposed. 

(c)  Ckinese  and  Japanese  in  Industry:  The  numeri- 
cal importance  of  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  in  industry  is 
comparatively  slight.  In  1900,  for  instance,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  93.8  per  cent,  of  all  the  persons  of  each  race 
10  years  of  age  and  over  were  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions, only  0.2  per  cent,  of  all  the  workers  in  agricultural 
pursuits,  0.1  per  cent,  in  professional  and  in  domestic  and 

i  Bulletin  of  the  (I,  S.J  DciJurtiiunt  of  Labor,  Xo.  47,  p.  TOG. 


IMMIGRATION  103 

personal  service,  0.3  per  cent,  in  trade  and  transportation 
and  0.2  per  cent,  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  pur- 
suits belonged  to  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  races.  Fully 
one-half  of  all  the  males  returned  as  launderers,  how- 
ever, were  Chinese  and  Japanese,  nearly  all  of  them 
being  Chinese,  while  the  two  races  together  formed  5.6 
per  cent,  of  all  the  males  returned  as  servants  and  waiters. 

In  general,  the  Chinese  tend  to  concentrate  in  domestic 
and  personal  service,  while  the  Japanese  tend  to  become 
distributed  through  the  three  occupation  groups,  domestic 
and  personal  service,  trade  and  transportation  and  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  Of  the  Chinese  males  gainfully 
employed  in  1900  more  than  three-fifths,  61.7  per  cent., 
were  engaged  in  domestic  and  personal  service,  nearly 
one-third,  31.0  per  cent.,  being  launderers,  15.5  per  cent, 
servants  and  waiters  and  12.6  per  cent,  laborers  not 
specified,  while  14.6  per  cent,  were  engaged  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  11.8  per  cent,  in  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  pursuits,  11.1  per  cent,  in  trade  and  trans- 
portation and  0.8  per  cent,  in  professional  service.  Of  the 
Japanese  males  gainfully  employed,  on  the  other  hand, 
about  two-fifths,  40.5  per  cent.,  were  in  domestic  and 
personal  service,  nearly  one-third,  30.5  per  cent.,  in  trade 
and  transportation,  nearly  one-fourth,  23.9  per  cent.,  in 
agricultural  pursuits,  4.5  per  cent,  in  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  pursuits,  and  0.6  per  cent,  in  professional 
service. 

The  concentration  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  in  particu- 
lar  localities,   hoAvever,   renders  the   problem   far  more 


104 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


serious  than  appears  upon  the  surface.  In  San  Fran, 
cisco,  for  instance,  the  Chinese  have  entered  a  variety  of 
trades,  including  the  usual  sweated  industries  of  the 
eastern  cities  and  also  cigar  making  and  the  manufacture 
of  boots  and  shoes.  They  work  for  an  average  wage  of 
$1.00  per  day,  and  for  from  eleven  to  twelve  hours  or 
longer.  In  cigar  making  they  have  practically  driven 
out  white  labor.  In  the  fruit  packing  industry  of  Cali- 
fornia the  Chinese  and  Japanese  are  both  employed  in 
large  numbers,  while  many  Chinese  are  employed  in  and 
about  mines  as  cooks  and  camp  attendants,  and  also  in  the 
actual  work  of  placer  mining,  where  they  receive  about 
one-half  the  wages  given  to  white  miners. 

On  the  railway  lines  of  the  West  large  numbers  of 
Chinese  and  Japanese  are  employed,  and  the  Japanese 
particularly  are  using  this  labor  as  a  means  of  advancing 
into  the  Eastern  states.  The  following  table  shows  the 
number  and  nationality  of  common  laborers  employed  by 
the  three  great  railroads  of  the  far  West  in  1900 : 


Ameri- 
cans 

Asiatics 

Foreign 
whites 

Total 

Per    i 

cent.   1 
foreign 

Oregon  Railway  and  Na- 
vigation Company  .  . 

Southern    Pacific    lines 
west  of  Ogden 

Santa  Fe  lines  west  of 
Albuquerque  

Total 

1,656 
6,660 
1,159 

463 
966 
347 

1,062 

1,260 

383 

3,181 
8,886 
1,889 

48 
25 
39 

9,475 

1,776 

2,705 

13,956 

33 

Those  classified   as   foreign   whites  bv   the   Southern 


IMMIGRATION  105 

Pacific  lines  include  only  Mexicans,  while  in  the  case  of 
the  Santa  Fe  lines  they  include  Indians  and  Mexicans. 
It  is  not  known  how  many  of  those  classed  by  these  two 
roads  as  Americans  are  really  of  foreign  birth.  More- 
over, a  great  part  of  the  construction  work  is  let  out  to 
contractors  who  employ  a  large  amount  of  Asiatic  labor. 
It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that  the  proportion 
of  Japanese  laborers  has  increased  rapidly  since  1900. 

The  agricultural  industries  of  the  Pacific  Coast  states, 
however,  have  suffered  most  severely  from  this  cheap 
coolie  competition.  Though  the  Chinese  are  at  present 
devoting  themselves  principally  to  enterprises  in  which 
they  have  become  proprietors  or  in  which  they  can  receive 
fairly  remunerative  wages,  the  Japanese  have  established 
themselves  as  wage-earners  in  almost  every  line  of  in- 
dustry, and  have  filled  the  hop  and  sugar-beet  fields,  the 
ranches,  orchards  and  vineyards. 

(d)  Legislation:  The  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  was  de- 
signed to  suspend  the  immigration  of  laborers  for  a  period 
of  years,  though  heretofore  it  has  been  periodically  re- 
newed. Several  classes  of  persons  are  specifically  ex- 
empted. These  are,  (a)  any  Chinese  laborer  who  is  reg- 
istered and  who  has  "a  lawful  wife,  child  or  parent  in  the 
United  States,  or  property  therein  of  the  value  of  one 
thousand  dollars,  or  debts  of  like  amount  due  him  and 
pending  settlement,"  (b)  "officials,  teachers,  students, 
merchants,  or  travellers  for  curiosity  or  pleasure,"  and 
(c)  wives  and  minor  children  of  members  of  the  exempt 
classes.     Chinese  born  in  this  country  belong  to  the  class 


106  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

of  so-called  "native  sons"  and  are,  of  course,  entitled  to 
admission  at  any  time.  Chinese  laborers  must  be  regis- 
tered, and  mnst  obtain  before  departure  from  this 
country  certificates  showing  the  right  to  return,  which, 
however,  are  good  for  only  one  year.  Members  of  the 
second  exempt  class,  officials,  teachers,  students,  mer- 
chants, and  travellers,  must  have  certificates  from  their 
own  government  vised  by  a  diplomatic  or  consular  repre- 
sentative of  the  United  States.  All  Chinese  found 
unlawfully  in  this  country  are  deported. 

This  law  is  very  difficult  of  enforcement,  owing  to  the 
ease  with  which  Chinese  can  enter  over  the  Canadian  and 
Mexican  borders,  to  the  uncertainty  of  identification,  and 
to  deliberate  frauds  of  all  kinds.  There  has  recently,  for 
instance,  been  a  large  increase  in  the  number  of  arrivals 
claiming  to  be  "native  sons,"  their  claims  supported  only 
by  the  testimony  of  Chinese  witnesses.  About  90  per 
cent,  of  these  cases  are  said  to  be  frauds,  and  at  least  75 
per  cent,  of  all  who  enter  in  this  Avay  are  common  coolie 
laborers.  There  is  also  a  great  deal  of  fraud  in  the 
entrance  of  the  minor  sons  and  daughters  of  merchants, 
or  those  claiming  to  be  such,  as  w^ell  as  of  the  merchants 
and  students  themselves.  In  many  instances  a  small  busi- 
ness has  many  partners,  each  claiming  a  $1,000  interest, 
and  the  majority  of  them  mere  laborers. 

The  weaknesses  of  the  Chinese  exclusion  law  are  (a) 
the  unnecessary  hardships  at  present  imposed  upon  mer- 
chants and  others  of  the  exempt  class,  (b)  the  difficulty  of 
patrolling  the  land  border  of  the  United  States,  (c)  the 


IMMIGRATION  107 

fact  that  the  Chinese  have  the  right  of  appeal  to  the 
United  States  District  Court,  while  the  Government  at  no 
stage  has  such  right  of  appeal,  (d)  the  purely  perfunctory 
way  in  which  the  consular  examination  in  China  is  per- 
formed, and  (e)  the  difficulty  of  determining  the  claims 
of  alleged  Chinese  merchants.  The  recommendations  of 
the  Commissioner-General  of  Immigration  in  1903  were 
that  officers  of  the  Immigration  Bureau  be  assigned  to  the 
consular  officers  in  China  for  use  in  making  the  investiga- 
tions required  by  law,  that  Chinese  to  be  employed  as 
seamen  on  American  vessels  be  definitely  excluded,  that 
the  Government  be  granted  the  right  of  appeal  in  all 
cases  of  Chinese  tried  on  the  charge  of  being  unlawfully 
in  this  country,  and  that  Chinese  merchants  be  required 
to  file  lists  of  the  members  of  their  firms  with  the  amounts 
invested  by  each,  and  to  give  prompt  notification  of  any 
changes  in  the  membership  of  the  business. 

8.  The  Problem  of  Immigration:  The  essence  of  the 
immigration  problem  is  the  enforced  competition  between 
laborers  with  a  low  standard  of  life  and  laborers  with  a 
relatively  high  standard  of  life,  and  the  economic  evil  of 
this  competition  is  measured  by  its  intensity,  which  is,  in 
turn,  determined  by  the  quality  as  well  as  by  the  quantity 
of  the  alien  elements.  The  immigration  of  1903,  for 
instance,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was  smaller  relatively 
to  the  total  population  and  to  the  industrial  resources  of 
the  country,  can  not  but  be  regarded  as  presenting  a  far 
more  serious  problem  than  that  of  1882.  The  immigrants 
who  came  in  earlier  years  were  permaneni  settlers;  they 


108  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

were  of  races  closely  allied  to  the  dominant  race  of  this 
country;  they  were  thrifty,  ambitious  and,  for  the  most 
part,  anxious  to  become  assimilated;  and  their  standard 
of  life,  while  lower  than  that  of  the  native  laborers,  was 
distinctly  higher  than  that  of  the  bulk  of  the  immigrants 
who  have  arrived  during  recent  years. 

It  is  sometimes  maintained  that  these  unskilled,  igno- 
rant laborers  are  needed  for  the  rough  work  of  the  coun- 
try, which  native  workmen  are  unwilling  to  undertake,  but 
for  several  reasons  this  theory  may  be  questioned.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  the  introduction  of  foreigners  has  un- 
doubtedly itself  caused  the  unwillingness  of  the  native 
laborers  to  perform  certain  kinds  of  work,  there  are  good 
reasons  to  believe  that  at  the  present  time  the  demand  of 
industry  in  general  is  increasingly  for  skilled  and  not  for 
unskilled  labor.  Moreover,  it  is  obvious  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  immigrants  fail  to  reach  the  localities 
where  they  are  needed  for  rough  work,  but  become  con- 
gested in  city  slums  and  sweat  shops. 

The  immigrants  most  dangerous  to  the  American  work- 
man, however,  are  those  who  come,  as  do  many  of  the 
laborers  from  southern  and  eastern  Europe,  to  earn  the 
higher  wages  offered  in  the  United  States,  with  the  fixed 
intention  of  returning  to  their  families  in  the  home  coun- 
try to  spend  those  wages.  The.y  have  no  incentive  to 
adopt  the  American  standard  of  life,  and  their  intense 
desire  for  the  immediate  advantage  of  the  moment  ren- 
ders it  impossible  to  rouse  their  ambition  or  to  materially 
better  their  condition. 


IMMIGRATION  109 

In  general,  it  has  been  unskilled  labor  that  has  suffered 
most  severely  through  immigration,  and  in  those  occupa- 
tions in  which  native  workmen  compete  side  by  side  with 
the  foreign  born  the  struggle  is  most  intense,  and  the 
depressing  influence  upon  the  standard  of  life  most 
serious. 

In  such  occupations  as  coal  mining,  native  laborers 
have  been  practically  driven  from  the  field,  and  the 
aliens  have,  by  mutual  competition  of  races,  reduced  the 
standard  of  living  to  a  mere  question  of  sustaining 
the  needed  physical  endurance.  This  point  once  reached, 
however,  the  foreigners  have  been  driven  to  drop  all 
question  of  race,  religion  and  politics,  and  to  unite  in  one 
of  the  most  powerful  labor  unions  of  the  country.  Or- 
ganization, though  effected  with  difficulty  among  the 
immigrants,  attains,  when  once  established,  the  force  of  a 
religion.  The  strength  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  is  an 
illustration  of  what  must  inevitably  appear  in  those  occu- 
pations which  are  given  over  wholly  to  the  foreign  born, 
who  underbid  each  other  until  the  limit  of  human  endur- 
ance is  reached. 

It  is  claimed,  finally,  by  many  advocates  of  restriction, 
that  the  *' racial  suicide,"  which  has  been  recently  so 
much  discussed,  is  closely  connected  with  the  problem  of 
immigration,  and  that  a  large  influx  of  foreigners  lowers 
the  native  birth  rate  and  raises  that  of  the  newly-arrived 
aliens.  It  is  maintained  that  "the  immigrants  are  not 
additional  inhabitants"  but  that  "their  coming  displaces 
the  native  stock ' '    Moreover,  it  is  stated  that  immigra* 


110  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

tion  does  not  relieve  over-population  in  the  older  coun- 
tries, because  there,  too,  the  birth  rate  is  increased  until 
the  places  of  the  immigrants  are  practically  filled.  Though 
the  facts  involved  here  are  still  in  dispute,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  question  is  of  profound  importance,  for,  from  this 
point  of  view,  immigration  would  become  of  most  serious 
sociological  significance.  Such  a  movement,  indeed,  as  is 
suggested,  would  involve  an  entire  transformation  of  the 
national  type,  and  would  imply  that  "the  future  of 
American  society,  industry,  religious  faith,  political 
institutions  may  be  decided  in  a  way  quite  marvelous  by 
the  governing  powers  of  this  country."^ 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  considerations  there  seems  no 
escape  from  the  conclusions  reached  some  years  ago  by 
President  Walker.  ' '  Charity  begins  at  home  ;  and  while 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  gladly  offered  an 
asylum  to  millions  upon  millions  of  the  distressed  and 
unfortunate  of  other  lands  and  climes,  they  have  no  right 
to  carry  their  hospitality  one  step  beyond  the  line  where 
American  institutions,  the  American  rate  of  wages,  the 
American  standard  of  living,  are  brought  into  serious 
peril.  All  the  good  the  United  States  could  do  by  offer- 
ing indiscriminate  hospitality  to  a  few  millions  more  of 
European  peasants,  whose  places  at  home  will,  within 
another  generation,  be  filled  by  others  as  miserable  as 
themselves,  would  not  compensate  for  any  permanent  in- 
jury done  to  our  republic.     Our  highest  duty  to  charity 


"  Hunter,  "Immigration  the  Annihllator  of  Our  Native  Stock,"  The 
Commons,  Vol.  9,  No.  4,  p.  116. 


IMMIGRATION  IH 

and  to  humanity  is  to  make  this  great  experiment,  here, 
of  free  laws  and  educated  labor,  the  most  triumphant 
success  that  can  possibly  be  attained.  In  this  way  we 
shall  do  far  more  for  Europe  than  by  allowing  its  city 
slums  and  its  vast  stagnant  reservoirs  of  degraded  peas- 
antry to  be  drained  off  upon  our  soil."^ 

References  :  Of  the  older  works  on  immigration  the  most  valuable 
are  Emigration  and  Imniipration,  by  Professor  Richmond  Mayo-Smith, 
and  the  article  by  Professor  E.  J.  James  on  "Emigration  and  Immigra- 
tion" in  Lalor's  Cyclopaedia  of  Politicul  Science.  For  authoritative 
Information  in  regard  to  the  recent  problem  the  reader  Is  referred  to 
the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XV,  which  contains  the 
testimony  of  witnesses,  a  review  and  digest  of  the  evidence  offered  and 
Beveral  special  reports,  and  Vol.  XIX.  pp.  957-1109.  in  which  the  entire 
subject  is  summarized.  More  recent  statistics  may  be  found  in  the 
Twelfth  Census,  Special  Report  on  Occvpations,  pp.  Ixxxi-lxxxv,  civ- 
cxvii,  clxxxvi-ccxii,  and  in  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Commissioner- 
Oeneral  of  Immloration.  The  most  important  of  the  more  popular 
treatments  of  the  subject  are:  The  series  of  nine  articles  on  the  "Racial 
Composition  of  the  American  People",  by  Professor  John  R.  Commons, 
published  in  the  Chautauqnan  from  September,  1903,  to  May,  1904, 
Vols.  38  and  39;  the  articles  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthhj  by  Dr. 
Allan  McLaughlin,  on  "The  Bright  Side  of  Russian  Immigration",  Vol. 
LXIV,  pp.  G6-70.  and  on  "Immigration  and  the  Public  Health",  Vol. 
LXIV,  pp.  232-238  ;  and  the  symposium  on  "The  Immigrant,  His  Prob- 
lem and  Ours",  in  Charities,  Vol.  XII,  No.  6,  pp.  129-154. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Immigrants  in  City  Slums: 

(a)  Claghorn,  "The  Foreign  Immigrant  in  New  York  City," 
Industrial  Commission  Report,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  449-492. 

(6)  Seventh  Special  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  The  Slums  of  Great  Cities,  pp.  21-102. 

(c)  'Ninth  Special  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Department 

of  Labor,  The  Italians  in  Chicago,  pp.     60. 

(d)  Woods  (ed.).  The  City  Wilderness,  passim. 

(e)  Woods   (ed.),  Americans  in  Process,  passim. 
(/)   Hull  House  Maps  and  Papers,  passim. 

2.  Economic  Effects  of  Immigration  : 

(a)  Commons,  "Immigration  and  Its  Economic  Effects,"  Indus- 
trial Commission  Report,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  295-316,  385-448. 
647-722. 

*  Walker,  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statietica,  "Restriction  of 
Immigration,"  p.  449. 


Q2  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

3.  Legislation : 

(a)  Industrial  Commission  Report,  Vol.  XIX.  pp.  1014-1030. 

(b)  Wallier.  Discussions  in  Economics  and  Statistics,  Vol.    It 

pp.  417-451. 

4.  Chinese  and  Japanese  Immigration : 

(a)  Turner,  "Chinese  and  Japanese  Labor  in  the  Mountain  and 
Pacific  States,"  Industrial  Commission  Report,  Vol.  XV, 
pp.  747-802. 

5.  Racial  Elements  in  the  Population  of  the  United  States: 

(a)  Bushee,  "Ethnic  Factors  in  the  Population  of  Boston,' 
Publications  of  the  American  Economic  Association, 
Third  Series.   Vol.  IV,  No.  2, 

(5)  Kuczynski,  "The  Fecundity  of  the  Native  and  Foreign 
Born  Population  in  Massachusetts."  Quarterly  Journal 
Of  Economics,  Vol  XVI,  pp.  l-3b',  and  141-186. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM 

One  of  the  greatest  evils  which  is  fostered  and  devel- 
oped by  the  constant  influx  of  alien  immigrants  is  the 
sweating  system.  This  is  the  last  unwholesome  survivor 
of  the  domestic  system  of  labor  and,  though  it  is  most 
prevalent  in  the  clothing  trade,  is  possible  in  any  industry 
in  which  are  present  the  three  essential  conditions:  (a)  a 
crowded  population  in  large  cities,  (b)  contract  work,  and 
(c)  inexpensive  machinery.  It  is  coming  to  be  recog- 
nized, for  instance,  that  true  sweating  exists  in  this 
country  in  cigar  factories,  bake-shops  and  laundries. 
Newly  arrived  immigrants  crowded  in  large  cities  are  the 
most  helpless  victims  of  the  system,  and,  by  their  willing- 
ness to  submit  to  almost  any  terms  of  employment  in 
order  to  live,  are  the  source  of  a  fierce  competition  which 
intensifies  the  very  evils  under  which  they  suffer. 

In  its  earlier  form  the  sweating  system  was  practically 
identical  with  the  sub-contract  system,  the  difference 
between  the  price  paid  the  contractor  and  the  price  paid 
the  sub-contractor  or  actual  worker  being  considered  as 
** sweated"  from  the  normal  earnings  of  the  latter.  Of 
late  years,  however,  the  tendency  has  been  to  reduce  the 
cost  by  eliminating  the  sub-contractor,  without  in  any 
S  113 


114  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

way  changing  the  labor  conditions.  There  is  no  indus- 
trial system  coextensive  with  the  evils  complained  of  and 
"an  examination  of  the  sweating  system  resolves  itself 
into  an  inquiry  into  the  conditions  under  which  occupa- 
tions recognized  as  'sweated  industries'  are  worked,  and 
into  the  causes,  whatever  they  may  be,  of  the  evils  which 
are  suffered. '  '^  In  the  following  section  an  attempt  will 
be  made  to  describe  the  system,  principally  as  it  relates 
to  the  clothing  trade,  by  means  of  a  study  of  its  charac- 
teristic conditions  and  its  more  fundamental  causes. 

1.  Characteristics  of  the  System:  The  following  defi- 
nition of  the  sweating  system  is  given  by  Mr.  Henry 
White,  formerly  general  secretary  of  the  United  Garment 
Workers  of  America :  ' '  The  term  '  sweating  system '  has  a 
general  meaning,  but  is  specifically  used  to  describe  a 
condition  of  labor  in  which  a  maximum  amount  of  work 
in  a  given  time  is  performed  for  a  minimum  wage,  and 
in  which  the  ordinary  rules  of  health  and  comfort  are 
disregarded. '  '^  This  definition  brings  out  the  three  char- 
acteristic evils  of  the  sweating  system,  (a)  low  wages, 
(b)  long  hours,  (c)  insanitary  workshops.  In  the  last 
named  evil  is  implied  a  fourth,  the  danger  to  the  health 
of  the  consumer  from  the  use  of  sweat  shop  goods.  The 
final  process  in  the  manufacture  of  clothing  in  the  sweat- 
shop is  the  removal  of  the  grease,  dirt  and  vermin  that 
have  collected,  but  the  less  obvious  accumulation  of  di- 
sease germs  generally  passes  unnoticed. 

1  Booth,  Life  and  Labor  of  the  People,  Vol.  IV,  p.  333. 
«  White.  "The  Sweating  System,'"  Bulletin  of  the  (United  Btatct)  De' 
pariment  of  Labor,  No.  4,  p.  360. 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  115 

The  causes  of  the  sweating  evil  are  somewhat  complex 
and  even  obscure.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that  it  is 
a  serious  mistake  to  regard  the  middleman  or  "sweater" 
as  himself  the  cause,  or  even  a  contributing  cause,  of  the 
evil.  The  typical  sweater  is  little,  if  any,  better  off  than 
his  employees,  and  is  himself  a  victim  of  the  system. 
Nor  is  sub-contract  an  absolutely  essential  part  of  the 
sweating  system.  The  same  conditions  have  been  found 
to  exist  when  the  work  was  taken  direct  from  the  manu- 
facturer. Another  view  is  that  the  ultimate  cause  of  the 
system  is  the  w^eakening  of  the  race  through  the  bad 
sanitary  and  hygienic  conditions  prevalent  in  cities, 
which  render  the  individual  inefficient  and  incapable  of 
competition  with  those  who  have  lived  under  better  con- 
ditions. This  idea,  however,  fails  to  account  for  the  fact 
that  in  the  United  States  thousands  of  victims  of  the 
sweating  system  come  from  the  agricultural  communities 
of  Europe,  and  for  the  further  fact  that  only  a  small 
proportion  of  the  children  of  sweat  shop  workers  are 
themselves  found  in  sweat  shops.  Nevertheless,  a  leading 
cause  of  the  sweating  system  is  undoubtedly  the  lack  of 
competitive  ability  on  the  part  of  large  numbers  of  wage, 
workers,  a  lack,  however,  which  is  principally  due  to 
ignorance,  absence  of  industrial  training  and  a  low  stand- 
ard of  life. 

A  second  leading  cause  of  the  sweating  system  is  the 
fact  that  in  certain  industries  the  general  rule  that  the  big 
shop  can  produce  more  cheaply  than  the  small  one  does 
not  hold  good.     This  fact  is,  of  course,  largely  dependent 


116  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

upon  the  former  cause,  for  the  small  shop  holds  its 
supremacy  only  by  reason  of  the  over-supply  of  cheap 
and  needy  labor.  The  large  establishment,  moreover,  is 
far  more  subject  to  legislative  supervision  than  the  small, 
which  maintains  its  economic  position  by  driving  down 
wages  to  the  subsistence  point  and  below,  by  indefinitely 
prolonging  hours,  and  by  wholly  neglecting  sanitary 
conditions.  The  large  use  of  woman  and  child  labor,  and 
the  small  amount  of  skill  required  in  a  highly  specialized 
industry  also  contribute  to  the  success  of  the  small  shop. 
The  foreigner,  moreover,  ignorant  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, is  at  the  mercy  of  some  small  contractor,  probably 
of  his  own  nationality,  from  whom  he  learns  a  single 
process  of  manufacture  and  by  whom  he  is  carefully 
guarded  from  the  knowledge  of  any  means  of  escape  f rop' 
this  vicious  circle.  Charity,  also,  frequently  steps  in  ana 
complicates  the  problem  still  further  by  giving  aid  only 
where  it  can  be  shown  that  the  family  is  partly  supported 
by  its  own  efforts,  thus  placing  pauper  labor  upon  the  side 
of  the  small,  obscure  shop  and  home  work  in  the  competi- 
tive struggle. 

Another  factor  which  has  contributed  largely  to  the 
success  of  the  small  shop  is  the  seasonal  character  of  the 
trade.  Outside  of  the  two  rush  seasons  of  three  or  four 
months  each  there  is  practically^  no  work.  If  the  manu- 
facturer maintained  his  own  establishment  this  fact 
would  be  a  serious  inconvenience  and  loss  to  him,  while 
it  would  be  hardly  possible  for  him  to  increase  his  work- 
ing capacity  rapidly  enough  during  the  rush  seasons.     By 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  HJ 

the  contract  system,  however,  he  throws  all  the  losses  of 
the  dull  period  upon  the  employees.  Under  it  he  can 
wait  until  the  last  moment  to  buy  his  goods,  and  can  then 
distribute  them  broadcast  to  be  made  up  in  the  minimum 
time.  By  means  of  this  system  a  mass  of  unskilled  labor 
is  effectively  organized  for  work  when  wanted,  and  is  cast 
adrift  readily  when  the  need  is  over. 

Aside  from  the  three  evils  which  we  have  seen  to  be 
inseparably  connected  with  sweating,  the  main  features 
of  the  system  are,  generally,  the  minute  subdivision  of 
labor  and  the  contract  system  with  a  piece  price  or  wage. 
The  manufacturer  is  usually  the  owner  of  the  material, 
but  the  work  is  not  carried  on  upon  his  premises.  In  the 
garment  trade  either  the  manufacturer  or  a  large  con- 
tractor has  what  is  called  an  ' '  inside  shop ' '  where  all  the 
cutting  is  done  and  from  which  the  articles  are  given  out 
in  bundles.  The  cutters  are  skilled  workmen,  usually 
working  by  the  week,  and  enjoying  superior  conditions  of 
labor. 

Three  principal  varieties  of  sweating  have  been  distin- 
guished. First,  individuals  may  labor  in  their  own  homes 
with  the  assistance  only  of  members  of  their  families.  A 
great  deal  of  custom  work  is  done  in  this  way  by  skilled 
journeymen  tailors.  For  the  most  part,  however,  this  is 
the  lowest  type  of  sweat  shop  labor,  and  is  frequently 
carried  on  under  conditions  of  indescribable  filth  and 
squalor,  in  quarters  which  have  become  centers  of  wretch- 
edness and  ignorance,  and  from  which  ''are  scattered 


118  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

much  of  the  crime  and  more  of  the  disease  that  infest  our 
large  cities. ' ' 

Secondly,  individuals  may  labor  in  their  homes  with 
hired  assistance  for  particular  operations.  This  is  the 
typical  form  of  sweating,  under  which  the  living  apart- 
ments are  turned  into  factories  in  which  outsiders  are 
employed,  and  frequently  also  boarded.  In  these  shops 
unclean  and  unhealthful  conditions  are  inevitable,  and 
the  close  association  of  from  six  to  fifteen  or  more  persons 
in  one  small,  unventilated  room  renders  the  spread  of 
contagion,  as  well  as  the  danger  of  disease,  a  constant 
menace.  The  sweater,  in  this  case,  is  not  merely  a  con- 
tractor, but  is  the  head  workman,  and  often  the  only 
person  in  the  shop  who  understands  all  the  different 
processes  involved  in  the  making  of  a  garment.  It 
is  against  these  shops  that  legislation  is  particularly 
directed. 

The  third  variety  of  sweating  is  carried  on  in  work- 
rooms used  especially  for  that  purpose.  These  arc 
sometimes  connected  with  the  living  rooms  of  the  sweater, 
but  sometimes  they  are  in  buildings  which  are  not  used 
for  residential  purposes.  They  are  frequently  in  rear 
tenements  or  barns,  which  have  been  condemned  as  unfit 
for  human  habitation.  The  machines  in  these  larger 
shops  are  sometimes  run  by  gas,  steam  or  electricity.  As 
the  size  of  the  shop  and  the  number  of  employees  increase, 
the  sweater  becomes  more  and  more  an  overseer,  driving 
the  laborers  to  the  greatest  possible  speed  for  the  longest 
possible  hours.     Although  wages  are  still  by  the  piece, 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  119 

only  rapid  work  and  long  hours  will  enable  the  work- 
people to  hold  their  places  in  these  shops,  for  the  burden 
of  expense  which  the  sweater  bears  is  comparatively 
heavy,  and  he  is  obliged  by  competition  to  turn  out  the 
maximum  amount  of  work. 

Though  these  are  the  three  varieties  which  may  properly 
be  called  sweating,  there  are  two  other  methods  of  garment 
manufacture  which  have  been  gaining  in  favor  within 
recent  years.  The  first  of  these  is  the  manufacture  of 
clothing  in  the  country  by  the  wives  and  daughters  of 
farmers  and  by  other  women  who  have  spare  time  and 
work  for  ' '  pin  money. ' '  The  conditions  of  labor  in  such 
eases  are  not  in  themselves  objectionable,  but  it  is 
obvious  that  this  country  competition  is  calculated  to 
drive  still  lower  the  conditions  in  the  city  sweat  shops. 
The  second  method  is  manufacture  in  large  "inside 
shops"  and  is  practically  the  factory  system  applied  to 
this  trade.  Little  objection  can  be  made  to  this  meth- 
od when  supervised  by  an  efficient  sj^stem  of  factory 
inspection. 

2.  Rise  of  the  Problem:  While  in  England  the  early 
victims  of  the  sweating  system  were  mainly  English  peo- 
ple, in  the  United  States,  and  even  in  London  at  the 
present  time,  the  immigrant  population  furnishes  the 
vast  majority  of  sweat  shop  workers.  In  New  York  City 
the  tailor  trade  was  originally  carried  on  by  the  English 
and  Scotch,  but  about  1850  the  Irish  began  to  appear,  and 
a  little  later  the  trade  was  taken  up  by  the  Germans.  The 
sweating   system   practically   began,   however,   in   1885, 


120  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

following  the  enormous  immigration  of  the  years  im- 
mediately  preceding.  The  Hungarian,  German  and 
Austrian  Jews  had  entered  the  trade  as  early  as  1873  and 
soon  afterwards  the  Russian  and  Polish  Jews  appeared. 
By  1890  the  Jews  had  gained  entire  control  of  the  clothing 
industry  in  Ncav  York,  the  price  of  labor  had  fallen 
greatly,  and  a  fierce  competition  reigned  in  all  the  larger 
cities  of  the  United  States,  including  New  York,  Boston, 
Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  Chicago.  In  the  same  year 
the  Italians  entered  the  clothing  trade  in  New  York,  and 
they  have  even  further  reduced  prices,  and  have  been  a 
powerful  factor  in  the  problem  of  home  work.  Thus  the 
clothing  industry  seems  to  have  been  the  first  resource  of 
each  of  the  alien  races  in  turn,  the  more  recent  driving  out 
the  older  immigrants  and  all  apparently  using  the  sweat- 
ing system  merely  as  a  stepping  stone. 

Passing  over  the  element  of  race,  there  are  traceable  in 
the  development  of  the  clothing  industry  in  this  country 
four  distinct  stages.  First,  there  was  the  journeyman 
tailor,  a  skilled  mechanic  who  made  up  the  entire  garment 
himself  and  worked  under  fairly  good  conditions.  The 
journeyman  tailor  has  continued  to  perform  a  great  part 
of  the  custom  work,  but  his  condition  has  steadily  dete- 
riorated, owing  to  the  pressure  of  competition. 

The  second  stage  was  the  home  shop  with  division  of 
labor,  and  for  this,  as  for  all  subsequent  developments, 
the  large  and  increasing  demand  for  ready-made  clothing 
is  largely  responsible.  While  in  1870  probably  less  than 
25  per  cent,  of  the  clothing  manufactured  in  this  country 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  121 

was  ready-made,  in  1890  it  was  60  per  cent.,  and  the  pro- 
portion is  considerably  higher  now. 

An  important  factor  in  the  supremacy  of  New  York  in 
the  clothing  business  has  been  the  prevalence  there  of  the 
third  method  of  production,  the  "task"  system.  Under 
this  system  the  subdivision  of  labor  and  the  economy  of 
expert  skill  are  carried  to  their  extreme,  and  here  the  Jew, 
owing  to  his  willingness  to  change  his  method  of  produc- 
tion, to  use  machinery,  and  to  drive  himself  to  the  limit  of 
exhaustion,  has  reigned  supreme.  The  system  originated 
about  1877,  and  practically  took  the  place  of  the  journey- 
man tailor  in  the  coat  making  branch.  The  task  system 
has  two  characteristics.  First,  there  is  a  "team"  or 
"set"  of  men  who  work  together,  each  one  performing  a 
special  part  of  the  labor.  Second,  a  certain  task  is  set, 
which  is  called  a  day 's  labor,  regardless  of  whether  it  takes 
one  day  or  two  to  perform  it.  By  this  means  the  fiction  is 
maintained  that  standard  wages  are  paid.  The  screw  is 
turned  from  time  to  time,  however,  by  increasing  the 
amount  of  the  ' '  task ' '  or  day 's  work.  ' '  Whereas  fifteen 
years  ago  the  task  was  eight  or  ten  coats  for  one  day's 
work,  the  task  is  now  twenty  to  twenty-two  coats  of  the 
same  quality.  Form^erly  the  operator,  baster  and  finisher 
could  complete  their  task  in  eight  or  ten  hours  of  leisurely 
Avork ;  now  it  requires  fourteen  hours  of  intense  applica- 
tion. '  '^  This  task  system  is  the  most  objectionable  method 
of  shop  work,  but  it  is  practically  confined  to  New  York. 

The  fourth  method  of  clothing  manufacture  is  the  appli* 

'■Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XV,  p.  337. 


122  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

cation  of  the  factory  sj^stem.  Although  it  is  difficult, 
under  existing  conditions,  for  this  method  to  compete  with 
the  sweat  shop,  it  seems  to  be  slowly  gaining  ground,  and 
may  in  time  prove  to  be  the  solution  of  the  sweating 
problem. 

3.  Legislation:  Twelve  states  have  passed  more  cr 
less  stringent  laws  upon  the  subject  of  tenement  house 
manufacture.  These  are  New  York,  Massachusetts,  New 
Jersey,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Pennsylvania, 
Michigan,  Ohio,  Missouri,  Wisconsin  and  Maryland.  In 
general,  the  legislation  upon  this  subject  in  the  United 
States  is  more  radical  than  in  any  other  country.  It  is 
designed  primarily,  not  to  protect  the  workers,  but  to  safe- 
guard public  health,  and  is  based  on  the  police  power  of 
the  state.  In  two  instances,  however,  such  legislation  has 
been  declared  unconstitutional.  The  New  York  law  of 
1884,  which  prohibited  tenement  house  work  in  the  manu- 
facture of  cigars,  was  declared  unconstitutional,  "as 
interfering  with  the  freedom  of  the  home,  and  as  not  ha'  - 
ing  the  justification  of  being  a  police  measure  for  the 
protection  of  the  health  of  the  public."  The  Maryland 
sweat  shop  law,  moreover,  which  was  more  radical  in  some 
respects  than  any  of  the  others,  was  recently  declared 
unconstitutional  as  transcending  the  police  power  of  the 
state. 

These  laws  usually  apply  to  all  rooms  in  tenements  or 
dwelling  houses,  though  the  Wisconsin  and  New  York 
laws  include  also  buildings  in  the  rear  of  tenements  and 
dwelling  houses.     In  regard  to  the  persons  to  whom  the 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  123 

law  relates,  INIichigan,  New  York,  Pennsylvania  niu\  Wis- 
consin make  no  mention  of  the  members  of  the.  ]:amily,  but 
simply  require  a  license  for  the  manufacture  in  the  speci- 
fied places  of  any  of  the  enumerated  articles.  Massachu- 
setts and  Maryland  prohibit  the  r  "nufaeture  of  certain 
articles  in  tenement  or  dwellino:  houses  by  any  persons 
outside  of  the  immediate  family  living  therein,  and 
require  a  license  for  each  famil5^  The  other  states  regu- 
late in  various  ways  tenement  house  manufacture  when 
outsiders  are  employed. 

The  articles  the  manufacture  of  which  is  regulated 
are  usually  carefully  enumerated  and  include  nearly  every 
variety  of  wearing  apparel  and  also,  very  often,  cigars 
and  cigarettes. 

All  of  the  states  that  have  laws  on  the  subject,  except 
Connecticut,  Ohio,  Illinois  and  Missouri,  require  licenses, 
and  Connecticut  and  Illinois  provide  that  the  factory 
inspector  shall  be  notified  whenever  such  a  shop  is  started. 
Indiana,  IMaryland,  Michigan,  New  Jersey,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Wisconsin  specifically  provide  that  the 
premises  must  be  inspected  before  a  license  or  permit  is 
granted,  that  the  license  shall  be  posted,  and  that  it  may 
be  revoked.  IMassachusetts,  Michigan,  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania and  Wisconsin  further  strengthen  their  license 
provisions  by  forbidding  the  hiring,  employing  or  con- 
tracting with  any  unlicensed  shop  or  family.  This  license 
provision  is  far  more  effective  than  any  penalty  imposed 
in  court,  since  it  avoids  the  delay  of  court  proceedings  and 
takes  from  the  violator  the  means  of  earning  a  living. 


124  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

Seven  states?,  Maryland,  Michigan,  Missouri,  New  York, 
Ohio,  Pennsylvania  and  Wisconsin,  require  manufactur- 
ers to  keep  lists  of  the  places  where  th«ir  work  is  done. 
In  Massachusetts  these  lists  are  secured  by  voluntary 
agreements. 

It  is  usually  provided  that  infectious  diseases  shall  be 
reported  to  the  Board  of  Health,  which  is  given  permission 
to  destroy  or  disinfect  garments  whenever  necessary.  In 
Pennsylvania,  however,  the  inspectors  themselves  are 
given  the  most  radical  powers  of  destruction  over  all  gar- 
ments made  in  violation  of  the  law. 

The  sanitary  provisions  relate  to  the  allowance  of  air 
space,  the  separation  from  living  and  sleeping  rooms, 
light,  ventilation,  and  cleanliness,  and  the  provision  of 
separate  outside  entrances. 

Massachusetts,  Missouri  and  New  York  require  that 
goods  found  manufactured  in  violation  of  the  law  shall  be 
labeled  "tenement  made."  In  Massachusetts  whoever 
sells  or  offers  for  sale  such  goods  must  affix  this  label, 
■while  in  New  York  the  factory  inspector  himself  affixes 
the  label.  This  tag  is  a  valuable  assistance  in  enforcing 
the  law  wherever  it  is  rigidly  followed  up  by  the  inspec- 
tors, so  as  to  insure  against  its  removal  by  other  than  the 
proper  authorities. 

The  inspection  of  tenement  house  work  is  usually  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  factory  inspectors.  Their  work  is, 
of  course,  somewhat  lightened  by  the  license  and  register 
provisions  of  the  law,  but  it  is,  at  best,  difficult  and  uncer- 
tain, owing  to  the  great  number  of  small  and  obscure  shops 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  125 

and  to  the  rapidity  with  which  new  establishments  are 
started  and  old  ones  moved  or  changed.  The  inspection 
forces  are  seldom  sufficiently  large,  for  only  frequent 
visits  can  insure  obedience  to  the  law. 

The  effects  of  this  legislation  have  been  beneficial  wher- 
ever it  has  been  enforced,  but,  with  a  shifting,  irresponsi- 
ble population  and  a  lack  of  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
the  law  in  the  very  quarters  where  it  is  most  needed,  it 
takes  an  almost  superhuman  vigilance  to  secure  its 
enforcement.  Of  the  large  cities  where  sweating  has 
gained  a  foothold,  Boston  is  tlie  only  one  which  may  be 
said  to  have  the  system  under  control,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  this  control,  a  great  part  of  Boston's  clothing 
business  is  said  to  have  been  transferred  to  New  York. 

Another  class  of  legislation  is  that  which  forbids  the 
use  of  sweat  shop  labor  in  public  contracts  for  the  manu- 
facture of  clothing.  The  necessity  for  regulation  of  this 
sort  was  first  keenly  realized  after  the  epidemic  of  typhoid 
fever  among  the  troops  stationed  near  Chattanooga  in 
1898,  which  some  persons  asserted  was  contracted  from 
sweat  shop  clothing  manufactured  in  Philadelphia.  A 
clause  is  now  inserted  in  all  contracts  specifying  that  the 
manufacture  of  army  clothing  may  be  carried  on  only 
in  regularly  organized  factories  conforming  to  the  state 
factory  laws. 

The  chief  recommendations  for  the  extension  of  sweat 
shop  legislation  are:  (a)  that  there  should  be  at  least  a 
basis  of  uniformity  between  the  states,  (b)  that  a  penalty 
should  be  imposed  upon  the  manufacturer  in  case  of  viola* 


126 


LABOR   PROBLEMS 


tion  of  the  law  by  his  employees,  and  (e)  that  the  Federal 
government  should  enact  legislation,  based  on  inter-state 
commerce  in  the  articles  manufactured.  Probably  the 
imposition  of  a  penalty  on  the  manufacturer  would  be  the 
most  effective  improvement  which  is  feasible  at  the 
present  time. 

4.  Present  Status:  One  of  the  most  difficult  points  to 
determine  is  the  exact  extent  of  the  evil,  for  sweating  is 
not  coincident  with  any  particular  industr}'.  Neverthe- 
less, some  rough  idea  of  the  problem  may  be  obtained 
from  the  following  table,  derived  from  the  Twelfth  Cen- 
sus, and  covering  only  the  most  important  industries  in 
which  the  sweating  system  is  known  to  exist  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent : 


Industries 

Average 
number 
of  em- 
ployees 

Propor- 
tion of 
women 

Propor- 
tion of 
children 

Ratio  of 
capital  to 
value  of 
product 

Proportion 
of  total 
wage-earners 
in  165  prin- 
cipal cities 

Men's  clothing 

Women's  cloth- 
ing, factory 
product .      .  . 

Men's  furnishing 
goods  

Shirts 

Cigars  and  ciga 
rettes  

191,043 

83,739 

30,216 
38,492 

103,462 

47.04 

67.91 

83.67 
80.73 

36.50 

2.05 

.91 

2.06 
2.11 

3.41 

41.67 

30.39 

45.93 
41.43 

42.25 

90.0 

91.7 

83.7 
67.1 

67.1 

All  industries  in 
U.  S 

5,308,406 

19.39 

3.17       75.49   1        62.5  ' 

*  Of  49  selected  ludustriea. 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM 


127 


These  industries  are  chaiacterized  by  the  lar£?e  propor- 
tion of  female  labor,  the  small  ratio  of  capital  to  the  value 
of  the  product,  and  the  concentration  in  cities.  The 
apparently  small  proportion  of  children  in  such  industries 
as  the  manufacture  of  women 's  clothing  is  surprising,  and 
there  is  reason  to  doubt  the  accuracy  of  the  figures.  It  is 
probably  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  these  statistics  are 
compiled  from  returns  made  by  the  manufacturers  them- 
selves, and  by  the  further  fact  that  many  small  estab- 
lishments escape  census  enumeration. 

As  the  sweating  system  is  confined  to  the  cities  it  is 
interesting  to  compare,  for  the  two  principal  sweated 
industries,  the  percentage  of  the  total  industry,  by  value 
of  product,  which  is  carried  on  in  the  six  largest  cities  in 
the  United  States.     This  is  done  in  the  following  table : 


Men's  clothing, 

per  cent.  o£ 

Product 

manufactured  in 

Women's  cloth- 
ing, factory  pro- 
duet,  percent,  of 

Product 
manufactured  in 

Both, 

per  cent,  of 

Product 

manufactured  in 

New  York.  .  . 
Chicago .... 
Philadelphia  . 
St.  Louis  .  .  . 

Boston 

Baltimore.  . 
Total.  .  .  . 

80.2 
12.7 
5.0 
2.1 
3.6 
4.9 

64.4 
5.8 
5.9 
1.9 
2.0 
1.6 

39.7 
10.8 
5.9 
S.O 
32 
4.0 

59.4 

81.6 

65.6 

In  New  York  City  there  is  manufactured  nearly  one- 
third  of  all  the  men's  clothing,  and  nearly  two-thii'ds  of 
all  the  factory  product  women's  clothing  in  the  United 


128  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

States.  The  first  three  cities  are  important  in  the  cloth- 
ing industry  in  the  order  of  their  population,  but  St.  Louis 
falls  behind  Cincinnati  and  Rochestei-,  as  well  as  Balti- 
more and  Boston.  Other  important  cities  are  Sj'^racuse, 
Detroit,  Milwaukee  and  San  Francisco. 

It  was  estimated  by  the  Committee  on  Manufactures, 
which  investigated  the  sweating  sj'stem  in  1893,  that 
probably  one-half  of  the  clothing  manufactured  at  that 
time  was  made  in  factories  by  the  employees  of  a  contrac- 
tor, and  the  other  half  was  divided  between  home  work 
and  subcontract  in  small  shops,  with  perhaps  five  per  cent, 
of  country  work.  Since  that  time  the  country  work  has 
increased  considerably,  and  the  factory  work  has  also 
shown  a  strong  tendency  to  increase  in  relative  impor- 
tance, but  at  the  same  time,  the  clothing  business  has 
grown  so  rapidly,  having  increased  65  per  cent,  in  New 
York  City  between  1890  and  1900,  that  the  sweat  shops 
must  also  have  multiplied.  Mr.  J.  B.  Reynolds,  of  the  Uni- 
versity Settlement  Society,  testified  before  the  Industrial 
Commission  that  he  believed  four-fifths  of  the  clothing 
trade  of  New  York  to  be  done  in  sweat  shops>  the  other 
fifth  being  done  by  custom  tailors  and  factories.  In 
other  cities  the  sweat  shop  is  probably  somewhat  less  prev- 
alent, in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  city. 

From  the  application  of  the  present  New  York  law. 
which  applies  only  to  rooms  or  apartments  in  tenement 
houses,  in  September,  1899,  up  to  September,  1901, 
46,985  applications  for  licenses  were  received,  of  which 
79.6  per  cent,  were  granted,  and  at  the  latter  date  there 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  -[—> 

were  28,787  licensed  places  in  the  state  of  New  York  and 
20,046  in  New  York  City.  One-third  of  all  the  licenses 
held  in  the  city  were  in  the  lower  East  Side,  the  most 
crowded  district  of  Greater  New  York.  The  total  num- 
ber of  persons  authorized  to  work  in  the  licensed  places 
was  72,636,  and  of  these  50,381  were  in  New  York  City. 
About  one-third  reported  that  they  were  to  work  on  cus- 
tom-made garments. 

In  Chicago  it  is  said  that  practically  all  the  clothing  is 
made  in  sweat  shops  or  home  shops  and,  from  1894  to 
1899,  the  manufacture  of  garments,  cigars  and  cigarettes 
in  that  city  increased  57  per  cent,  in  the  number  of 
employees.  The  Illinois  factory  inspector  estimated  in 
1899  that  there  were  60,000  people  in  Chicago  engaged  in 
the  three  sweated  industries,  the  garment  trades,  the 
manufacture  of  cigars  and  cigarettes  and  the  bakeries. 
The  Pennsylvania  factory  inspector  reported,  in  1902, 
8,122  persons  as  subject  to  the  sweat  shop  law,  probably 
nearly  all  in  Philadelphia,  while  Baltimore  had,  at  the 
beginning  of  1903,  1,309  licensed  places  in  tenement 
houses  or  dwellings  with  11,849  persons  employed. 

It  was  found  in  Boston  in  1890  that  nearly  89  per  cent, 
of  the  annual  product  of  the  clothing  industry  was  made, 
wholly  or  in  part,  under  the  contf  tet  system,  which 
applied  to  practically  all  the  work  exc  v'-  ^li6  cutting  and 
trimming.  Only  47.88  per  cent,  of  this  work,  however, 
was  done  in  Boston,  16.72  per  cent,  of  it  being  done  in 
New  York  City  and  the  rest  in  other  parts  of  Massachu- 
setts, Maine,  New  Hampshire  and  even  New  Jersey.  The 
9 


130  LABOR    ?ROBLEMS 

tenement  work  in  Boston  is  principally  confined  to  the 
finishing  process.  Conditions  are  far  better  there  than 
elsewhere,  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  sweating  system 
has  been  abolished. 

A  good  deal  of  the  Cincinnati  and  Cleveland  work  is 
done  in  the  surrounding  suburbs.  In  Detroit,  during  the 
year  1902,  the  special  inspector  visited  528  places  employ- 
ing 1,002  persons  in  tenement  work  shops,  and  issued  520 
permits.  In  Milwaukee  there  were  granted,  between  the 
fall  of  1901  and  July  1,  1902,  300  licenses,  and  in  280  of 
these  places  there  were  1,637  employees.  In  Indianapolis 
in  1902  there  were  151  permits  outstanding  for  the  manu- 
facture of  clothing  in  the  homes  of  the  workers,  and  there 
were  employed  in  these  home!?  168  people. 

5.  Social  Aspects:  Having  determined  as  accurately 
as  possible  the  extent  of  the  sweating  system,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  consider  the  social  aspects  of  the  problem,  the 
location  and  sanitation  of  the  shops  and  the  danger  to  the 
health  of  the  workers  and  of  the  public.  The  statistical 
information  to  be  obtained  on  these  points  is  necessarily 
of  a  very  scattering  kind. 

In  New  York  state  in  1901,  5,300  of  the  licensed  places 
were  in  shops  and  23,487  were  in  dwellings.  Though  the 
shops  were  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  whole  number  of 
licensed  places  they  contained  45.4  per  cent,  of  the 
employees.  The  great  majority,  82.6  per  cent.,  of  the 
home  workers  were  women.  In  Chicago  in  the  same  year 
5,313  places  occupied  by  garment  workers  were  inspected 
and  in  359  cases  the  work  was  being  carried  on  in  living 


/  THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  .131 

rooms.  In  Baltimore  there  were  found  to  be  871  shops 
in  front  rooms,  887  in  back  rooms,  87  in  middle  rooms  and 
3  in  rear  rooms.  Of  these  539  were  on  the  first  floor,  611 
on  the  second  floor,  436  on  the  third  floor,  64  on  the  fourth 
floor,  11  on  the  fifth  floor,  2  on  the  sixth  floor  and  75  in  the 
basement.  The  Wisconsin  inspectors  found  in  IMilwaukee 
that,  of  the  280  buildings  occupied,  81  per  cent,  were 
dwellings,  12  per  cent,  regular  factories,  and  7  per  cent, 
used  also  for  other  business  purposes.  There  were  27 
shops  in  basements,  205  on  the  first  floor,  45  on  the  second 
floor  and  3  on  the  third  floor. 

The  workrooms  are  usually  small,  low,  unventilated  and 
dark,  and  are  often  located  at  the  top  of  a  house  under  a 
low,  sloping  roof  Sometimes  they  are  over  stables  and 
even  more  often  are  located  on  alleys  and  in  rear  tene- 
ments. The  habit  which  prevails  among  most  of  these 
people,  especially  among  the  Russian  Jews,  of  keeping  all 
windows  and  doors  tightly  closed,  makes  ventilation  prac- 
tically unknown,  and  the  rooms  are  greatly  overheated  in 
summer  by  the  constant  presence  of  the  presser's  stove. 
The  shops  in  middle  rooms  are  universally  badly  lighted 
and  ventilated,  as  are,  obviously,  the  basement  shops. 

As  regards  cleanliness,  in  Baltimore,  of  the  1,831  rooms 
inspected,  1,026  were  found  to  be  clean,  260  to  be  dirty, 
and  545  to  be  fair.  There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the 
frequent  filthiness  of  the  rooms  used  as  sweat  shops.  The 
1893  Pennsylvania  report  speaks  of  one  place  "on  the 
third  floor  of  a  dwelling  house.  The  family  consisted  of 
a  man,  wife  and  five  children  who  worked,  cooked,  ate  and 


132  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

slept  in  two  small  rooms.  The  people  looked  as  though 
they  had  not  washed  themselves  for  a  year.  The  boys' 
coats  that  they  were  making  were  piled  upon  a  dirty  bed. 
The  dirt  could  absolutely  have  been  shoveled  out  of  the 
rooms.  Potato  parings,  garbage  and  filth  of  all  kinds 
were  strewn  about  the  floor,  and  the  odor  that  prevailed 
was  so  foul  that  one  of  the  agents  was  made  sick.  "^ 

The  bad  sanitary  condition  of  the  houses,  the  dirt  and 
filth  of  every  description  and  the  close  crowding  of  the 
rooms  with  an  over-worked,  poverty  stricken  population 
fully  accounts  for  the  prevalencfe  among  these  people  of 
consumption  and  other  diseases.  As  ]\Ir.  John  Graham 
Brooks  stated  before  the  Industrial  Commission :  ' '  The 
testimony  of  phj'sicians  that  have  examined  them  is  that, 
given  a  sweat  shop  that  is  uninspected,  where  the  members 
work  in  the  boom  season  up  to  the  limits  of  endurance, 
using  foot  power  for  the  machine,  that  it  is  rare  to  find, 
after  four  or  five  years,  any  healthful  person  there."- 

Although  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  trace  disease  to 
clothing  manufactured  under  the  sweating  sj'stem,  owing 
to  the  number  of  hands  through  which  each  garment 
passes  before  it  is  completed,  there  have  been  some  cases 
in  which  this  has  been  done.  Vermin  are  often  discovered 
in  sweat  shop  goods,  and  wherever  they  are  carried  disease 
germs  may  also  be  carried.  "There  is  no  other  material 
that  so  invites  use  and  deposit  during  manufacture  as  to 
involve  to  so  great  an  extent  as  does  cloth  contact  M'ith  the 

'Twenty-first  Annual  Report  of  the  (Pennsylvania)  Bureau  of  Indus 
trial  Htatistics,  B,  pp.  4-5. 
*■  Industrial  Commission,  XIV,  p.  130. 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  133 

persons  of  the  unclean  and  sick  of  the  family,  not  merely 
during  the  day,  but  even  as  a  rest  for  exhausted  sleepers. 
There  is  probably  no  material  which,  once  having  har- 
bored disease  germs  or  filth,  is  so  favoi-able  to  their  pres- 
ervation or  propagation  as  is  cloth,  especially  when  made 
of  wool ;  and,  lastly,  it  would  be  hard  to  imagine  any 
material,  or  use  to  which  it  could  be  put,  that  would  be  so 
repulsive  to  civilized  instincts  and  so  dangerous  to  life 
and  health  as  clothing,  steeped  in  contagion,  to  be  worn 
on  the  person."^ 

It  is,  moreover,  an  erroneous  idea  to  suppose  that  sweat 
shop  clothing  is  necessarily  poor  in  quality.  On  the  con- 
trary, overalls  and  workingmen's  garments  are  usually 
manufactured  in  large  factories  under  good  conditions, 
while  some  of  the  worst  conditions  are  found  in  the  custom 
trade  and  in  the  manufacture  of  beautiful  and  expensive 
garments.  It  w^as  again  and  again  stated  before  the 
Industrial  Commission  that  no  man  in  buying  a  custom 
made  suit  of  the  best  and  most  fashionable  tailor  could 
have  any  assurance  that  it  was  not  made  in  a  sweat  shop. 
The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  all  classes  of  women's 
ready  made  clothing. 

A  few  instances  of  the  danger  to  the  public  from  the 
sweating  system  may  be  cited.  During  the  smallpox 
epidemic  in  Chicago  in  1894  ''two  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  different  tenement  houses  were  reported  by  the  fac- 
tory inspectors  to  be  infected,  and  the  health  officials  had 
only  a  small  number  of  these  on  their  list. ' '    In  Baltimore 

*  Committee  Report,  H.  R.,  52-2,  V.  I.  No.  2309,  p.  xsil. 


134  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

one  case  was  discovered  in  which  two  children  lay  ill  with 
diphtheria  in  a  room  next  to  that  occupied  hy  workers, 
who  were  making  up  cloaks  of  costly  design  and  fabric. 
In  Chicago  a  tailor  was  found  working  upon  an  evening 
coat  of  the  finest  quality,  while  five  feet  away  from  his 
table  his  son  lay  dying  of  typhoid  fever,  and  another  tailor 
was  found  working  on  a  good  summer  overcoat  in  the 
same  room  in  which  there  was  a  patient  dying  of  small- 
pox. In  the  latter  case  the  coat  was  marked  with  the 
name  of  a  custom  tailor  in  Helena,  Montana.  A  journey- 
man tailor  testified  before  the  Industrial  Commission  that 
while  he  was  working  at  home  his  children  had  scarlatina, 
whooping  cough  and  measles,  and  that  during  this  time  he 
made  a  garment  for  the  superintendent  of  the  county 
schools. 

6.  Conditions  of  Labor:  Even  worse  than  the  sani- 
tary evils,  if  such  a  thing  were  possible,  are  the  labor 
conditions  that  prevail  under  the  sweating  system,  the 
long  hours,  low  wages  and  irregular  work. 

In  Boston  the  average  day  is  about  ten  hours,  while  the 
investigation  in  Milwaukee  disclosed  only  5.72  per  cent,  of 
the  establishments  and  1.65  per  cent,  of  the  employees 
working  over  ten  hours.  In  New  York  City,  however,  the 
secretary  of  one  of  the  unions  was  able  to  point  out,  from 
among  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  persons,  sixteen  who 
were  working  twelve  hours,  eight  who  were  working  four- 
teen hours,  six  who  were  working  eighteen  hours  and  four, 
men  who  had  come  over  to  this  countiy  alone  and  were 
anxious  to  send  for  their  families,  who  were  working 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM 


135 


twenty  hours  a  day.  A  journeyman  tailor  of  Chicago 
testified  before  the  Industrial  Commission  that  he  knew 
many  men  who  worked,  during  the  busy  season,  six  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  same  week,  and  that  he  had  repeat- 
edly seen  men  work  thirty-six  hours  M'ithout  any  inter- 
ruption or  sleep  or  hardly  any  time  to  take  their  meals. 
Moreover,  these  long  hours  are  much  more  exhausting 
now  than  they  were  twenty  years  ago  owing  to  the 
increased  speed  and  exertion. 

Wages  vary  enormously,  frequently  with  no  apparent 
reason  but  the  greater  or  less  need  of  the  workers  and 
their  greater  or  less  ability  as  bargainers.  In  one  ease 
five  different  prices  for  precisely  the  same  work  were 
found  in  one  tenement.  Moreover,  wages  are  about  25 
per  cent,  lower  in  the  home  shops  than  in  the  contractors ' 
shops. 

The  customary  rate  of  wages  for  piece  work  in  New 
York  is  shown  in  the  following  table,  which  was  furnished 
the  Industrial  Commission  by  Mr.  Henry  White,  former 
secretary  of  the  United  Garment  Workers : 


$10  suit 

$15  suit 

$20  suit 

Cutting  and  trimming  . 

Making  coat 

Making  pants  o  .  .  .  .  . 
Making  vest 

0.15 
.75 
.30 
.25 

0.21 

1.00 

.40 

.35 

0.25 

1.50 

.55 

.50 

Total 

$1.45 

$1.96 

$2.80 

In  the  Special  Census  Report  on  Employees  and  Wages 


136 


LABOR   PROBLEMS 


statistics  are  given  of  wage  rates  and  earnings  in  the 
clothing  trade,  based  for  the  men  on  about  one  thousand 
and  for  the  women  on  about  two  thousand  cases.  The  fol- 
lowing table  shows  the  median  weekl.y  wage  rate,  or  that 
of  the  middle  person  in  a  series  arranged  in  order  of 
wages  received,  in  1890  and  1900,  of  males  16  years  of 
age  and  over  and  of  females  16  years  of  age  and  over : 


Males,  16  and 
over 

Females,  16  and  over 

Rates  per 
week 

Rates  per 
week 

Earnings  per 
week 

1900 

1890 

1900 

1890 

1900 

1890 

Basters 

Bushelers   .  . 

Cutters 

Finishers ....      ... 

$10.00 
17.00 

$10.00 
18.00 

$5.00 

$5.00 

4.50 

4.00 

?5.50 

$5.00 

Foremen 

General  hands,  helpers 
and  laborers 

Seamers 

25.00 
5.50 

24.00 
7.00 

5  50 

5.50 

4.00 
6.00 
4.50 

5.50 
6.50 
5.50 

5.00 
6.00 
5.00 

Sewing  machine  oper- 
ators   

7.00 
11.00 
10.00 

8.00 
11.00 
11.50 

4.00 
6.00 
4.00 

All  others  occupations. 
All  occupations  .... 

Among  the  males  the  general  average  rate  is  brought  up 
considerably  by  the  cutters  and  foremen,  but  during  the 
decade  there  was  evidently  a  decided  decrease  for  "all 
occupations,"  accounted  for  chiefly  by  the  decrease  in  the 
wages  of  the  "general  hands,  helpers,  and  laborers." 


THE  SWEATINCx  SYSTEM  137 

Owing  to  the  prevalence  of  piecework  among  the  women 
and  to  the  impossibility  of  ascertaining  precisely  the 
actual  time  worked  by  each,  the  earnings  as  well  as  the 
rates  are  given.  It  is  found  that  the  wage  rates  of  females 
16  years  of  age  and  over  in  all  the  various  occupations 
have  decreased  slightly,  while  the  earnings  have  increased. 
These  are,  however,  typical  figures  for  the  trade  rather 
than  sweat  shop  statistics,  which  run  below  the  trade 
average.  In  New  York  City,  for  instance,  a  woman  was 
found  ' '  who  earned  $70  by  twenty  weeks '  work,  which  was 
the  entire  income  for  the  support  of  herself,  mother,  aged 
57  years,  and  sister,  aged  32  years. '  '^ 

Work  is  more  irregular,  however,  in  the  clothing  trade 
than  in  almost  any  other  occupation.  Months  of  feverish 
activity  are  supplemented  by  periodic  unemployment,  due 
to  the  seasonal  character  of  the  work.  The  rush  periods 
begin  in  the  spring  about  the  middle  of  February  and  in 
the  fall  about  the  middle  of  August,  and  each  period  lasts 
from  three  to  four  months,  with  the  uncertainty  of  work 
increasing  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  size  of  the  shop.  This 
irregularity  discourages  thrift,  tends  to  promote  bad 
habits,  increases  pauperism  and  is  extremely  injurious  to 
the  morals  of  employees.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  in 
the  clothing  trade  able  bodied,  skilled  workmen  who  live 
part  of  the  year  on  their  earnings  and  part  of  the  year  on 
charity.  Such  a  condition  of  things  produces  the  dead- 
liest possible  competition  in  the  trade.     Few  of  these  peo- 


1  Ttceniieth  Antiual  Report  of  the  (New  York)  Bureau  of  Labor  StOr 
tistic8,  p.  68. 


238  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

pie,  however,  are  capable  of  making  a  whole  garment, 
and  even  fewer  are  capable  of  engaging  in  an}^  other 
occupation. 

7.  Sweating  and  Its  Remedies:  The  evils  of  the 
sweating  system  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  It  is  an 
undoubted  breeder  of  squalor,  want,  intemperance,  moral 
depravity,  pauperism,  crime,  disease  and  death.  That  it 
has  not,  and  does  not  now,  result  in  far  worse  social  condi- 
tions than  can  be  charged  against  it,  is  not  due  to  the 
system,  but  simply  to  the  ambition,  the  tenacity,  and  the 
hardy  perseverance  of  the  immigrants  Avho  have  served 
their  apprenticeship  to  American  citizenship  in  the  sweat 
shops  of  our  large  cities.  It  is  due  to  the  fact,  for 
instance,  that  ' '  the  Jewish  sweaters '  victims  are  probably 
more  temperate,  hard-working,  and  avaricious  than  any 
equally  large  body  of  wage-earners  in  America.  Drunk- 
enness is  unknown  among  them.  So  great  is  their  eager- 
ness to  improve  the  social  condition  of  their  children,  that 
they  willingly  suffer  the  utmost  privation  of  clothing, 
food,  and  lodging,  for  the  sake  of  keeping  their  boys  in 
school.  "1 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  very  stream  of  immigration 
which  has  made  the  system  possible  has,  in  a  Avay,  miti- 
gated its  evils,  for  with  each  new  wave  of  immigration  the 
older  arrivals,  if  they  have  not  already  escaped  by  their 
own  exertions,  have  been  driven  forcibly  out  of  the  indus- 
try.    Thus  the  racial  deterioi-ation,  which  is  the  greatest 

*  Kelley,  "TLe  Sweating  System,"  llull-IIouise  Maps  aud  Papers,  p.  41. 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  139 

danger  to  be  dreaded  from  the  system,  has  been,  at  least 
in  part,  prevented. 

There  are,  moreover,  at  the  present  time,  several  healthy 
tendencies  developing  themselves  in  the  clothing  industry. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  legislation  which  has  been 
enacted  within  the  last  fifteen  years.  Second,  is  the  ten- 
dency towards  the  large  factory  system,  previously 
noticed  as  a  recent  development  of  the  industry  in  New 
York.  In  that  city  in  1903,  70  per  cent,  of  the  coats  were 
made  in  factories.  Though  in  these  factories  the  workers 
are  pushed  to  the  greatest  possible  exertion,  the  machines 
are  run  by  mechanical  power,  the  hours  are  absolutely 
regular,  nine  and  a  half  a  day,  and  the  sanitation,  light 
and  ventilation  are  comparatively  good.  Each  coat 
passes  through  thirty  hands  and  comes  out  fourteen  min- 
utes quicker  and  four  cents  cheaper  than  from  the  task 
shop.  Wages,  however,  are,  for  the  majority  of  workers, 
lower,  and  the  speed  constantly  increases.  The  contest 
between  the  sweating  system  and  the  factory  system  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  economic  phases  of  this  subject. 

Trade  unionism,  although  more  hampered  in  the  gar- 
ment trades  than  in  almost  any  other  field  of  activity, 
owing  to  the  lack  of  intelligence  of  the  workers,  the 
extreme  pressure  of  daily  needs,  the  isolation  in  homes 
and  small  shops,  and  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  lan- 
guage and  customs  of  this  country,  has  recently  acquired 
a  foothold,  aided  by  the  growth  of  the  factory  system. 
Its  first  and  constant  task  is  necessarily  an  educational 
one,  but  on  several  occasions  strikes,  begun  in  the  busy 


140  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

season,  have  been  eminently  successful.  Another  method 
employed  has  lieen  the  use  of  the  label,  granted  only  to 
those  firms  which  employ  union  labor  under  conditions 
approved  by  the  organization.  This  label  is  growing  in 
popularity,  especially  among  trade  unionists  and  their 
sympathizers,  and  is  said  to  have  accomplished  good 
results. 

The  backbone  of  tiie  general  public  sentiment  in 
opposition  to  the  sweating  system  is  found  in  the  Con- 
sumers' League,  a  national  organization  Avhich  aims  to 
secure  improved  conditions  both  in  the  manufacture  and 
in  the  sale  of  all  articles  of  Avearing  apparel.  The  method 
employed  is  a  sort  of  inverted  boycott  placed  upon  goods 
which  are  not  made  and  sold  under  the  approved  condi- 
tions. There  is  a  "White  List"  of  mercantile  establish- 
ments which  give  fair  treatment  to  their  employees,  and  a 
"Consumers'  League  Label"  Avhich  is  placed  upon  goods 
manufactured  in  places  meeting  the  four  general  require- 
ments, (a)  obedience  to  the  factory  laws,  (b)  all  goods 
made  upon  the  premises,  (c)  no  overtime  worked,  and  (d) 
no  children  under  sixteen  employed. 

References  :  The  best  authority  upon  the  subject  of  the  sweating 
system  as  it  now  exists  is  the  S'pecial  report  by  Professor  John  K.  Com- 
mons on  "Foreign-Born  Labor  in  the  Clothing  Trades,"  in  the  Itidus- 
trial  Commi.ision  Report,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  316-384.  The  Final  J'eport  of 
the  Industrial  Coinmission,  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  740-746,  sums  up  the  situa- 
tion. Conditions  in  1803  are  described  in  the  special  report  on  "The 
Sweating  System"  made  by  the  Committee  on  Manufactures  of  the 
House  of  Reijresentatives,  and  found  in  House  l{<port.i.  r,2nd  Conqress, 
Snd  session,  v.  I,  No.  "309  (es.  pp.  iv-viii).  State  Bureaus  of  Labor 
and  Industrial  Statistics  have  ji1.'*<i  made  several  special  reports  on  the 
sweating  system,  the  most  valuable  of  which  are  contained  in  the 
Tenth  Wiseonsin  Report,  pp.  177-314,  the  Eleventh  Maryland  Report, 
pp.  55-137,  the  Twenty-first  Pennsylvania  Report,  B.  pp.  1-9,  and  the 


THE  SWEATING  SYSTEM  141 

Twrntirth  Annual  Report  of  the  (New  Ynrh)  ISuirau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
"Wag«s  in  the  C'lothiun  Trades,"  pp.  1-'2H.  and  "Karnings  in  Home  In- 
dustries," pp.  ;?7-281.  Otlier  sources  of  information  are  tlie  Seventh 
and  Ninth  Annual  Reports  of  the  Illinois  Factory  Inspectors,  and 
the  Siateenth  Annual  Report  on  Factory  Inspection,  New  York,  pp. 
118-131. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Characteristics  and  Causes  of  the  System  : 

(a)    Schloss.    Methods   of  Industrial   Remuneration    (Srd   ed.); 

pp.   20r,-122G. 
(h)   White,   "The   Sweating  System,"  Bulletin  of   the  (United 

States)  Department  of  Labor,  No.  4,  pp.  3t)0-.379. 
(c)    Lee,    "The   Sw»:\ting   System,"   Journal  of  Social  Science, 

No.  30,  pp.  105-137  ;  id..  House  Reports,  52nd  Congress, 

2nd  session,  v.  I,  No.  2309,  pp.  242-261. 

2.  Conditions  in  Certain  Cities: 
London  : 

(a)  Potter,  "The  Tailoring  Trade,"  Booth,  Life  and  Labor  oj 

the  People,  Vol.   IV,  pp.  37-08. 

(b)  Booth,   "The  Sweating  System,"  Life  and  Labor  of  the 
People,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  328-347. 

New  Yorlc  : 

(a)    Daniel,   "Conditions  of  the  Labor  of  Women   and  Chil- 
dren," Journal  of  Social  Science,  No.  30,  pp.  73-85. 
Boston : 

(a)    Wadlin,     "The     Sweating     System     in     Massachusetts," 
Journal  of  Social  Science,  No.  30,  pp.  SG-102. 
Chicago  : 

(a)  Kelley,    "The   Sweating  System,"   Hull-House  Maps  and 
Papers,  pp.  27-45. 

(b)  Auten,    "Some    Phases   of   the   Sweating    System    in   the 

Garment    Trades    of   Chicago,"   American   Journal    of 
Sociology,  Vol.  G,  pp.  602-645. 

3.  Remedies : 

(a)    Webb,   "How   to  Do  Away  With  the  Sweating  System," 

Problems  of  Modern  Industry,  pp.  139-155. 
(6)    Schwiedland.   "The  Sweat  Shop  and  Its  Remedies,"  In- 
ternational Quarterly,  Vol.  7,  pp.  408-430. 


CHAPTER  V 

POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT 

It  is  obviously  impossible  to  describe  here  in  detail 
all  the  evils  which  beset  the  laboring  population.  For- 
tunately, for  our  purposes,  however,  most  of  the  evils 
inherent  in  the  existing  industrial  system  express  them- 
selves finally  in  terms  of  poverty,  unemployment  and 
inadequate  or  irregular  earnings.  In  the  present  chapter 
a  brief  treatment  of  these  topics  is  given,  in  order  to  com- 
plete by  a  few  bold  strokes  the  description  of  the  evils 
which  create  the  labor  problem. 

1.  Poverty:  In  dealing  with  this  subject  we  are  not 
so  much  concerned  with  the  horrors  and  startling  inci- 
dents of  poverty,  as  we  are  with  its  extent  and  causes. 
Our  most  trustworthj^  and  satisfactory  information  upon 
these  points  comes  from  England  ;  and  the  most  important 
of  the  English  investigations  is  undoubtedly  that  con- 
ducted by  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  into  the  conditions  of  the 
laboring  people  of  London,  which,  beginning  in  1886, 
required  for  its  completion  and  presentation,  as  Mr.  Booth 
quaintly  remarks,  "seventeen  years  and  an  equal  numbei* 
of  volumes."^     The  most  important  single  result  of  this 


*  Charles   Booth,    f-ife   and   Labor  of    ilic   People   in    London.    (1802- 
1902),  Final  Volume,  p.  200. 

143 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT       I43 


monnmental  study— the  estimate  of  the  extent  of  poverty 
— is  given  in  the  following  tabular  statement.  For  the 
benefit  of  those  to  whom  Mr.  Booth 's  work  is  not  accessi- 
ble, it  should  be  said  that  Class  A  represents  the  occasional 
laborers,  loafers  and  semi-criminals ;  Class  B,  the  very 
poor— "casual  labor,  hand-to-mouth  existence,  chronic 
want ; ' '  Classes  C  and  D,  those  whose  earnings  are  small 
because  of  irregular  employment  or  low  wages;  Classes, 
E  and  F,  the  regularly  employed  and  fairly  paid  work- 
ing classes ;  Classes  G  and  H,  the  middle  class  and  all 
above : 


A  (lowest) 37,610  or   0.9  per  cent. 


B  (very  poor)    ....  316,834 

C  and  D  (poor)       .     .     .  938,293 

E  and  F  (working 
class,  comfortable)      2,166,503 

G  and  H  (middle 
class  and  above)      .     .  749,980 

4,209,170 
Inmates  of  institutions,      99,830 


7.5 
22.3 

51.5 

17.8 


In  poverty, 
'30.7  per  cent. 


In  comfort, 
'69.3  per  cent. 


Estimated  popula- 
tion (1889) 


4,309,000' 


The  extent  of  poverty  revealed  by  these  figures  is  so 
large,  and  the  whole  investigation  so  important,  that  it 
would  be  desirable,  if  space  permitted,  to  describe  here  in 
detail  the  methods  employed  in  Mr.  Booth's  investigation. 
This  much  may  be  said:  Mr.  Booth's  results  rest  partly 
upon  a  house  to  house  examination  of  the  families  of  East 
London,  and  partly  upon  expert  estimates.     Moderate 


i/n  op.  cit..  Vol.  II,  p.  21. 


144  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

families  having  from  18  to  21s.  a  Aveek  were  regarded  as 
* '  poor, ' '  those  having  less  than  this  income  were  listed  as 
* '  very  poor. ' '  Mr.  Booth 's  figures  have  been  accepted  by 
socialists,  ultra-conservatives,  royal  commissioners  and 
economists  in  general  as  substantially  correct,  and  cer- 
tainly no  large  social  study  was  ever  conducted  by  a 
private  individual— so  far  as  can  be  judged  from  the  out- 
side—with more  painstaking  regard  for  accuracy  and 
impartiality.  In  the  light  of  Mr.  Rowntree's  more  inten- 
sive study  of  York,  described  below,  it  would  appear  that 
Mr.  Booth's  figures  understate  rather  than  overstate  the 
poverty  existing  in  London  in  1889.  On  the  other  hand, 
these  two  counter-considerations  should  be  borne  in  mind. 
First,  Mr.  Booth's  "poor"  include  alike  the  worthy  and 
unworthy,  those  who  are  poor  because  of  thriftlessness 
and  drunkenness,  as  well  as  those  who  suffer  from  low 
wages  and  pure  misfortune.  Second,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  although  Mr.  Booth  is  conscious  of  no  bias  in 
his  investigations,  and  firmly  believes  in  their  substantial 
accuracy,  he  nevertheless  chose,  in  cases  of  doubt,  to  over- 
state rather  than  to  understate  the  extent  of  poverty ; 
"preferring  to  paint  things  too  dark  rather  than  too 
bright, ' '  he  tells  us,  ' '  not  because  I  myself  take  a  gloomy 
view,  but  to  avoid  the  chance  of  understating  the  evils 
with  which  society  has  to  deal. '  '^ 

In  1899  Mr.  B.  Seebohm  Rowntree  made  an  investiga- 

*/w  op  cil.,  Vo].  I,  p.  5.  For  a  description  of  the  methods  of  the 
investiKation  see  Vol.  I.  pp.  1-27,  and  Vol.  II,  1-24.  Reasons  for 
the  statement  that  Mr.  Booth's  minimum  Income  Is  too  low  and  the 
extent  of  poverty  understated  rather  than  overstated  may  be  found  in 
Itowntree's  Poverty^  3rd  ed.,  pp.  86-118. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      I45 

tion  of  poverty  in  Yark,^  Avhich  furnishes  at  once  an 
invaluable  supplement  and  an  instructive  contrast  to 
Mr.  Booth's  study.  Instead  of  overstating  the  evil  in 
cases  of  doubt,  Mr.  Rowntree  seems  consistently  to  have 
understated  it.  Instead  of  merging  the  ' '  necessary ' '  and 
''unnecessary"  poverty,  Mr.  Rowntree  made  a  scientific 
attempt  to  distinguish  the  two.  And  instead  of  a  hetero- 
geneous metropolis  in  which  the  extremes  of  want  and 
luxury  flourish  side  by  side,  he  selected  for  study  a  homo- 
geneous, typical  English  town  of  75,812  people.  Practi- 
cally every  wage-earning  family  in  York  was  separately 
visited  and  examined ;  11,560  families,  containing  two- 
thirds  of  the  total  population.  The  other  families — the 
families  keeping  servants — were  assumed  to  be  above  the 
poverty  line. 

In  order  to  appreciate  Mr.  Rowntree 's  results  it  is 
necessary  to  understand  the  distinction  which  he  draws 
between  primary  and  secondary  poverty.  Families  were 
said  to  be  in  primary  poverty  when  their  total  earnings 
were  ''insufficient  to  obtain  the  minimum  necessaries  for 
the  maintenance  of  merely  physical  efficiency."  Fami- 
lies were  said  to  be  in  secondary  poverty  when  their 
''total  earnings  would  be  sufficient  for  the  maintenance 
of  merely  physical  efficiency  were  it  not  that  some  portion 
of  it  is  absorbed  by  other  expenditure,  either  useful  or 
wasteful."^  Mr.  Rowntree 's  estimate  of  the  minimum 
income  required  to  maintain  physical  efficiency  was  most 


i  Poverty.  A  Study  of  Town  Life,  3rd  ed.,  1902. 
« Ibid.,  pp.  86-87. 
10 


146  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

carefully  made  from  a  study  of  dietaries,  retail  prices, 
etc.,  and  it  may  be  said  in  passing  that  the  dietary  or  food 
standard  which  he  used  is  less  generous  than  that  required 
to  be  given  in  the  poor-houses  of  Great  Britain.  Mini- 
mum incomes  were  computed  for  families  of  all  sizes,  that 
for  a  man,  wife  and  three  children  being  21s.  8d.  a  week, 
say  $5.25.^  The  result  of  the  entire  investigation  is,  in 
brief,  as  follows :  According  to  the  opinion  of  the  agent 
who  made  the  house  to  house  canvass,  43.4  per  cent,  of  the 
wage-earning  population  or  27.84  per  cent,  of  the  total 
population  of  York,  were  living  in  poverty.-  This  pro- 
portion includes  both  those  in  primary  and  secondary 
poverty.  In  accordance  with  the  actual  measurements  of 
earnings  and  necessary  minimum  expenditures,  15.46  per 
cent,  of  the  wage-earning  class  or  9.91  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  population  were  living  in  primary  poverty  as 
above  defined. 

What  primary  poverty  or  the  minimum  income  shall 
include  is  largely  a  matter  of  definition.  The  average 
reader  of  Mr.  Rowntree's  work,  I  believe,  will  inevitably 
conclude  that  in  order  to  be  safe  he  has  cut  his  estimate 
entirely  too  low.  "For,"  he  tells  us,  "let  us  clearly 
understand  what  'merely  physical  efficiency'  means.  A 
family  living  upon  the  scale  allowed  for  in  this  estimate 

^  For  this  unique  calculation  see  op.  cit.,  p.  110. 

5>  The  results  of  the  Investigations  of  Mr.  Booth  and  Mr.  Rowntree 
have  been  frequently  misapplied,  and  their  statistics  should  be  inter- 
preted in  close  connection  with  their  methods  and  definitions  of  terms. 
Their  results  have  been  generally  accepted  as  substantially  correct, 
though  they  are  criticised  by  Mrs.  Bosanquet  in  The  Coninnporary  Re- 
view for  .Tanuary,  1904.  Mrs.  Rosanqnefs  reniarks  after  thoy  have 
passed  from  explanation  to  criticism  are  wholly  unconvincing. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      147 

must  never  spend  a  penny  on  railway  fare  or  omnibus. 
They  must  never  go  into  the  country  unless  they  walk. 
They  must  never  purchase  a  half-penny  newspaper  or 
spend  a  penny  to  buy  a  ticket  for  a  popular  concert. 
They  must  write  no  letters  to  absent  children,  for  they 
cannot  afford  to  pay  the  postage.  They  must  never  con- 
tribute anything  to  their  church  or  chapel,  or  give  any 
help  to  a  neighbor  which  costs  them  money.  They  cannot 
save,  nor  can  they  join  sick  club  or  trade  union,  because 
they  cannot  pay  the  necessary  subscriptions.  The  chil- 
dren must  have  no  pocket  money  for  dolls,  marbles  or 
sweets.  The  father  must  smoke  no  tobacco,  and  must 
drink  no  beer.  The  mother  must  never  buy  any  pretty 
clothes  for  herself  or  for  her  children  *  *  *  _  Should 
a  child  fall  ill,  it  must  be  attended  by  the  parish  doctor ; 
should  it  die,  it  must  be  buried  by  the  parish.  Finally, 
the  wage-earner  must  never  be  absent  from  his  work  for 
a  single  day.  If  any  of  these  conditions  are  broken,  the 
extra  expenditure  is  met,  and  can  only  he  metjhj  limiting 
the  diet ;  or,  in  other  words,  by  sacrificing  physical 
efficiency. ' ' 

There  are  actually  hundreds  of  items  not  comprehended 
in  Mr.  Rowntree's  minimum  wiiich  a  family  must  have  in 
order  to  live  in  a  condition  of  decency.  If  we  assume 
that  the  average  family  must  have,  "to  escape  practical 
poverty,"  at  least  six  shillings  per  week  above  the  neces- 
sary minimum  as  defined  by  Mr.  Rowntree,  then  33.63  per 
cent,  of  the  wage-earning  classes,  or  21.5  per  cent,  of  the 
total  population  of  York,  were  in  actual  poverty.     This 


148  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

is  the  result  of  an  actual  application  to  the  wage-earning 
families  of  York,  of  a  minimum  requirement  of  27s.  8d., 
say  $6.75  a  week,  for  a  family  of  five,  any  variation  in  the 
actual  size  of  the  families  having  been  duly  taken  into 
account.  If  this  estimate  of  $6.75  errs  at  all,  it  errs  on  the 
side  of  safety,  that  is  to  say,  it  is  insufficient  to  procure  the 
real  necessities  of  life. 

The  conclusions  reached  concerning  the  immediate 
causes  of  primary  poverty  are  equally  significant.  Of  all 
the  cases  of  primary  poverty,  51.96  per  cent,  w^ere  due  to 
low  wages,  though  the  work  was  regular;  22.16  per  cent, 
to  the  largeness  of  the  family  ;  15.63  per  cent,  to  the  death 
or  desertion  of  the  chief  wage-earner ;  5.11  per  cent,  to  the 
illness  or  old  age  of  the  chief  wage-earner ;  2.31  per  cent, 
to  unemployment ;  and  2.83  per  cent,  to  irregularity  in 
employment. 

Mr.  Booth,  it  may  be  added,  reached  very  similar  con- 
clusions in  the  4,076  cases  of  poverty  which  he  investi- 
gated from  the  standpoint  of  cause.  Of  these,  62.5  per 
cent,  were  due  to  "questions  of  employment,"  i.e.,  low 
pay,  lack  of  work  and  irregular  work ;  22.5  per  cent,  to 
"questions  of  circumstance,"  /.  c,  sickness  or  large  fami- 
lies; and  15.0  per  cent,  to  "questions  of  habit,"  i.  c, 
idleness,  thriftlessness  and  drunkenness.^  The  slight  dis- 
crepancies in  the  results  of  ]\Ir.  Booth  and  Mr.  Rowntree 
probably  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  latter  analyzed 
cases  of  primary  poverty  only,  while  Mr.  Booth  included 
cases  of  both  primary  and  secondary  poverty, 

1  Booth,  Life  and  Labor,  Vol.   I,   p.   147 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      I49 

In  his  investigations  Mr.  Rowntree  found  that  the  fami- 
lies in  the  lowest  depths  of  poverty  had  a  very  small  pro- 
portion of  children  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  old 
people.  The  greatest  misery  is  thus  primarily  due  to  old 
age,  illness  and  the  death  of  the  chief  wage-earner.  In 
the  next  higher  group,  a  larger  class  consisting  chiefly  of 
unskilled  laborers,  the  proportion  of  children  was  exces- 
sively high,  and  the  earnings  excessively  low.  Poverty 
here  was  primarily  due  to  large  families  and  small  earn- 
ings. These  two  groups  contain  practically  all  of  the 
"primary"  poor.  Their  composition  throws  the  most 
interesting  light  upon  the  nature  of  poverty :  Poverty  is 
not  a  medium  jjermanently  inhabited  by  a  fixed  section  of 
the  population,  but  a  condition  into  which  most  day  labor- 
ers relapse  at  certain  Avell  defined  periods  of  their  lives. 
"The  life  of  a  laborer,"  says  Mr.  Rowntree,  "is  marked 
by  five  alternating  periods  of  want  and  comparative 
plenty."  (a)  The  average  child  of  the  laborer  is  born 
into  a  condition  of  poverty,  or  reaches  that  condition  in 
the  first  few  years  of  his  life.  There  he  remains  until  he 
or  his  brothers  are  able  to  assist  their  father  in  supporting 
the  family,  (b)  Then  begins  the  golden  age.  From 
fifteen  to  thirty,  from  the  time  he  enters  the  factory  until 
a  couple  of  years  after  his  marriage,  the  laborer's  lot  is  an  • 
easy  one.  (c)  Then  as  his  own  children  begin  to  arrive 
he  sinks  again,  and  for  a  period  of  about  ten  years— say 
from  his  thirtieth  to  his  fortieth  year— he  struggles  on  in 
poverty,  weighted  down  by  a  large  family  too  young  to 
assist  him,  and  deprived  for  long  periods  of  the  assistance 


150  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

of  his  Avife.  (d)  In  time,  however,  his  own  children 
begin  to  help,  and  then  ensues  another  period  of  com- 
parative opulence,  lasting,  say,  from  the  laborer's  fortieth 
year  until  he  is  too  old  to  work,  and  his  children  have 
families  of  their  own  to  support,  (e)  After  this,  the 
penury  of  old  age. 

About  the  extent  of  poverty  in  the  United  States  we 
have  practically  no  trustworthy  information.  The  cen- 
sus of  1890  showed  73,045  inmates  of  almshouses  and 
58,866  insane  paupers,  131,911  in  all.  But  this  takes  no 
account  of  the  recipients  of  out-door  relief,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  poor  who  are  not  paupers,  and  Prof.  Ely  estimated 
the  paupers  in  1890  at  3,000,000.  The  only  estimate  we 
have  at  all  approaching  the  results  of  Booth  and  Rowntree 
is  the  statement  of  the  Department  of  Labor  in  1894,  that 
the  population  of  the  "slum"  districts  of  the  sixteen  larg- 
est cities  of  the  country  constituted  "at  the  least  calcula- 
tion ' '  10  per  cent,  of  the  total  population  of  those  cities.^ 
But  there  is  a  large  number  of  well-to-do  people  in  the 
slum  districts,  and  many  poor  outside  of  them,  so  that 
the  significance  of  the  above  estimate  is  doubtful. 

Our  statistics  of  the  immediate  causes  of  povert}'  are 
more  satisfactory,  that  is  to  say,  they  are  as  trustworthy 
as  the  European  statistics.  Such  figures  can  never  reveal 
the  fundamental  or  original  causes  of  poverty,  and  they 
must  be  used  with  the  greatest  caution.  The  American 
figures  which,  on  the  whole,  seem  most  trustworthy  are 


*  flerenth  Flppcial  Report  of  the  Cotnmissioncr  of  Labor,  "The  Slums 
of  Great  Cities,"  p.  11. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      151 

Chose  collected  by  the  charity  societies  of  Baltiraoi-e,  Xew 
Haven,  New  York  and  Boston,  and  tabulated  uniformly 
by  Mr.  Warner.^  Of  the  7,225  cases  of  poverty  investi- 
gated, 72  per  cent,  resulted  from  causes  indicating  mis- 
fortune, 25  per  cent,  from  causes  indicating  misconduct, 
and  3  per  cent,  from  unclassified  causes.  More  specifi- 
cally, drink  accounted  for  15.3  per  cent.,  shiftlessness  and 
inefficiency  for  7.51  per  cent.,  lack  of  employment  for 
23.16  per  cent.,  insufficient  employment  for  6.51  per  cent., 
sickness  or  death  for  22.27  per  cent,  and  old  age  for  4.00 
per  cent.  These  figures  relate  to  people  who  receive  poor 
relief,— to  paupers  as  distinguished  from  the  "poor"  of 
Mr.  Rowntree'^  and  Mr.  Booth's  investigation.  Taking 
this  fact  into  account  they  are  quite  in  harmony  with  the 
conclusions  of  Mr.  Booth  and  Mr.  Rowntree  respecting  the 
causes  of  poverty. 

We  may  now  summarize,  our  conclusions  respecting 
poverty,  (a)  About  the  United  States  the  most  we  can 
say  is  that  poverty  is  probably  considerably  less  extensive 
than  in  England.  This  statement  is  based  upon  the  facts 
that  wages  are  considerably  higher  in  the  United  States 
than  in  England,  while  the  cost  of  living  is  not  appre- 
ciably dearer,  (b)  In  urban  England,  probably  30  per 
cent,  of  the  population  live  in  poverty,  and  this  30  per 
cent,  may  be  divided  into  a  group  of  about  9  per  cent, 
whose  income  is  insufficient  largely  because  it  is  improp- 

1  A.  G.  Warner,  American  Churiiica,  Table  VIII.  Arguments  should 
not  be  based  upon  these  figures  without  a  thorough  reading  of  Mr. 
Warner's  admirable  statement  of  the  use  and  limitations  of  such  sta- 
tistics, pp.  34  37.  Later  figures  may  be  found  conveniently  in  the 
Final  Report  of  the  Industrial  Comtninsion,  p.  747. 


152  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ei-ly  expended,  and  another  group  of  about  21  per  cent, 
who  do  not  earn  enough  to  buy  the  necessaries  of  life. 
(c)  Combining'  the  various  studies  of  the  causes  of  pov- 
erty, we  conclude  that  for  our  purposes  the  poor  may  be 
profitably  regarded  in  three  groups :  (  a )  The  lowest 
group,  containing  the  smallest  number,  consists  largely  of 
the  actual  paupers,  whose  misery  is  primarily  caused  by 
old  age,  sickness,  death  and  drink. ^  (yS)  The  second 
group  contains  the  largest  number,  and  poverty  here  is 
primarily  due  to  inadequate  earnings.  This  inadequacy 
may  result  from  low  but  regular  wages,  fair  but  irregular 
wages,  unemployment  or  excessive  families.  Rowntree 
emphasizes  the  first  and  last  causes,  Booth  the  irregu- 
larity of  employment.  (  y  )  The  third  group  contains  the 
large  number  of  workmen  who  earn  adequate  wages,  but 
waste  them  in  drink,  licentious  living,  or  other  forms  of 
unnecessary  expenditure. 

One  word,  as  INIr.  Warner  says,  sums  up  all  the  causes 
of  poverty,  "incapacity" — incapacity  to  work  regularly, 
incapacity  to  adapt  oneself  to  new  conditions,  incapacity 
to  restrain  the  passions.  This  point  is  briefly  mentioned 
to  guard  the  reader  against  the  conclusion  that  because 
''questions  of  employment"  are  primarily  responsible  for 
most  of  the  poverty,  therefore  our  industrial  system  is 
wholly  responsible  for  the  existence  of  povert}'.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  question  of  ultimate  responsibility  is 

1  In  1802  in  England,  from  2.5  per  cent,  to  4.5  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
population  received  poor-relief,  2G  per  cent,  of  tbe  population  over  65 
years  of  age  received  poor-relief,  and  11.9  per  cent,  of  all  the  deaths 
occurred  In  almshouses,  and  public  hospitals  and  asylums. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      153 

as  yet  insoluble.  The  great  majority  of  investigators  who 
have  dealt  with  poverty  at  first  hand  agree,  that  in  ordi- 
nary times,  low  wages,  irregularity  of  employment  and 
lack  of  employment  are  due  in  the  first  instance  to  the 
inefficiency  and  unreliability  of  the  very  people  who  suf- 
fer. "If  one  wanted  thoroughly  efficient  help,  male  or 
female,  he  would  hardly  expect  to  find  it  among  the  'out- 
of-works'  with  whom  the  charitable  societies  deal.  Back 
of  the  cause  'lack  of  work'  ordinarily  and  in  ordinary 
times,  will  be  found  some  perversion  of  character,  or 
some  limitation  of  capacity."^ 

On  the  other  hand,  it  can  not  be  too  thoroughly  im- 
pressed, that  this  does  not  throw  the  whole  responsibility 
upon  the  poor  themselves.  Who  or  what  is  responsible 
for  this  incapacity f  "We  ask  some  man  who  seems  to 
have  fallen  by  the  way  why  he  is  thus  overthrown,  why  he 
is  lazy  or  drunken,  why  he  knows  no  trade,  why  he  is  con- 
tent to  work  irregularly  or  for  a  pittance  wage  ?  why  his 
home  is  poor,  and  his  wife  and  children  not  cared  for? 
And  even  though  he  himself  is  without  excuse,  and  even 
though  the  moral  decadence  of  his  own  life  may  seem  to  be 
the  chief  explanation  of  the  poor  part  he  plays,  Ave  think 
for  him  and  can  not  but  consider :  what  of  his  childhood, 
of  his  early  home,  of  his  education,  of  his  chances  of  learn- 
ing thoroughly  some  well-chosen  trade?  And  what,  too, 
of  the  care  shown  him  in  the  years  of  his  youth  and  early 
manhood  ? ' '-     No  authority  however  great  can  nicely  bal- 


'  Warner,  American  Charities,  p.  39. 

I  Booth,  Life  and  Labor,  Vol.  IX,  p.  383. 


loi  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

anoe  the  many  considerations  and  say  whetlier  society  or 
the  pauper  himself  is  responsible  for  poverty.  What  we 
do  know  is  that  a  sadly  large  proportion  of  the  population 
do  not  earn  enough  to  keep  themselves  decently.  And 
for  some  purposes  this  is  enough  to  know. 

2.  Wages  and  Earnings:  We  can  not  at  present  trace 
poverty  to  its  source  and  decide  whether  wastefulness  and 
inefficiency  are  due  to  poverty,  or  poverty  to  wastefulness 
and  inefficiency.  But  taking  the  work  people  as  we  find 
them,  the  statistics  of  wages  make  it  perfectly  apparent 
that  a  large  section  of  the  population  can  not  earn  enough 
to  keep  them  out  of  poverty.  In  his  London  investigation, 
for  instance,  Mr.  Booth  found  that  out  of  75,076  adult 
male  wage  earners,  22.5  per  cent,  received  less  than  25s.  a 
week  and  23  per  cent,  from  25s.  to  30s.  These  figures, 
he  tells  us,  are  too  high  because  they  ' '  do  not  sufficiently 
allow  for  irregularity  of  employment,"  and  because 
* '  the  men  included  are  too  favorable  a  sample  of  the  whole 
industrial  population  of  London."^  Mr.  Rowntree's  sta- 
tistics of  earnings — which  make  due  allowance  for  unem- 
ployment— have,  so  far  as  it  was  possible,  been  tabulated 
by  Mr.  Bowley,  and  reveal,  as  we  should  suspect,  a  lower 
level:  45.1  per  cent,  received  less  than  25s.  a  week,  14.7 
per  cent,  between  25  and  30s.,  and  40.2  per  cent.  30s.  or 
more.^  The  general  statistics  for  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land are  even  more  significant.     Basing  his  estimate  on 


^  Life  and  Labor,  Vol.  IX,  p.  .^71.  These  figures  were  published  In 
1807. 

^Journal  of  the  Royal  fitntixtical  Society,  June,  1902,  p.  361.  These 
figures  pertain  to  the  year  1809. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      155 

actual  wage  returns  for  1885,  Sir  Robert  Giffen  estimated 
in  1893  that  the  actual  earnings  of  adult  males  were 
approximately  as  follows  :^ 

\ 

Under  10s.  a  week, 0.2  per  cent. 

10s.  to  15s 2.5 

15s.  ••  20s. 20.9 

20s.  "  25s 35.4 

25s.  "  30s 23.6 

30s.  "  35s 11.2 

35s.  "  40s 4.4 

Above  40s 1.8 


The  average  earnings  for  men  were  24s.  7d.  a  week,  or 
£64  a  year ;  for  women  12s.  8d.  a  week  or  £32  10s.  a  year ; 
for  boys  9s.  2d.  a  week  or  £23  8s.  a  year ;  for  girls  7s.  a 
week,  or  £18  4s.  a  year.  If,  as  we  have  given  reason  for 
believing,  the  average  English  family  requires  about  27s. 
a  week  to  secure  the  necessaries  of  life,  the  above  figures 
furnish  ample  confirmation  of  the  statistics  of  poverty 
given  by  Mr.  Booth  and  Mr.  Rowntree.  The  figures  show 
that  the  general  average  for  men  was  less  than  25s.  a  week 
and  that  59  per  cent,  received  less  than  that  amount.  Of 
course  the  earnings  of  the  men  must  be  supplemented  by 
the  earnings  of  the  women  and  children,  in  order  to  arrive 
at  family  earnings.  Thus,  Sir  Robert  Giffien  estimates 
that  if  the  average  annual  earnings  of  men  were  about 

»  Fifth  and  Final  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Labor,  pp.  10- 
11.  These  figures  take  due  account  of  allowances  such  as  free  homes, 
partial  payment  in  kind,  etc.,  and,  interpreted  as  expressing  conditions 
in  1893,  may  be  assumed  to  allow  for  unemployment. 


156  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

£60  a  year,  the  average  family  income  would  be  £80  a 
year.  But  as  we  have  seen,  there  are  periods  in  the  life 
of  the  wage-earner  where  he  receives  little  or  no  aid  from 
his  wife  and  children,  and  if  59  per  cent,  of  the  men 
receive  less  than  25s.  a  week,  it  is  easy  to  believe  that 
30  per  cent,  of  the  populaiion  are  on  the  average  in 
poverty. 

No  general  wage  census  has  ever  been  taken  in  the 
United  States,  but  we  have  more  or  less  satisfactory  sta- 
tistics of  the  wages  of  railway  and  farm  labor  and  of 
persons  employed  in  the  manufacturing  industries.  In 
the  following  table,  a  detailed  statement  is  presented  of 
the  weekly  wages  of  male  workmen  in  our  large  factory 
industries,  most  of  them  situated  in  cities  of  considerable 
size.  The  table  omits  the  wages  of  women,  children 
under  sixteen  years  of  age,  domestic  workers,  servants, 
casual  laborers  and  other  classes  of  the  more  poorly  paid 
workers,  but  as  a  picture  of  the  distribution  of  wages 
among  the  better  class  of  our  manufacturing  population, 
and  subject  to  the  limitations  mentioned  in  the  following 
footnote,  it  is  in  all  probability  thoroughly  trustworthy. 
According  to  the  figures  for  1900,  49.68  per  cent,  received 
less  than  ten  dollars  a  week,  34.12  per  cent,  between  $10 
and  $15  a  w^eek,  and  16.20  per  cent.  $15  or  more  a  week. 
The  median  wage  was  about  $10.05  a  w^eek  in  1900. 
Multiplying  this  by  the  number  of  weeks  in  a  year,  and 
deducting  10  per  cent,  for  unemployment,  we  get  $480, 
the  average  yearly  earnings.     One  half  the  male  popula- 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      157 


tion  engaged  in  manufactures  in  1900  may  safely  be 
assumed  to  have  earned  less  than  this  amount.^ 

Classified  Wages  :   Manufacturing  Industries 


Wages 

1890 

1900                      1 

Number 

Percent. 

Number 

Percent. 

Under  $6  a  week. 

69,481 

9.2 

13,439 

7.1 

$  6—   7.99     "    . 

97,228 

12.8 

27,187 

14.4 

8—   9.99     "    . 

133,330 

17.6 

52,916 

28.1 

10  —  11.99     "    . 

107,654 

14.2 

28,331 

15.1 

13  —  14.99     "    . 

140,214 

18.5    . 

35,903 

19.1 

15  —  19.99     "    . 

136,918 

18.1 

25,160 

13.4 

20  and  over  "    . 
Total  .  .  .  . 

73,050 

9.6 

5,344 

2.8 

757,875 

100.0 

188,280 

100.0 

By  combining  the  wage  statistics  of  agricultural,  rail- 
way and  factory  workers,  it  is  possible  to  make  a  maxi- 
mum estimate  of  the  annual  earnings  of  the  average 
American  wage-earner  which  is  quite  serviceable  for  many 
uses ;  or,  to  be  more  precise,  we  can  fix  upon  a  certain  sum 
and  say  with  all  reasonable  certainty  that  at  least  one-half 
of  the  wage-earners  in  these  three  lines  of  industry 
received  less  than  that  amount  in  1900.     In  the  latter  year 

1  The  statistics  for  1890  are  from  the  Eleventh  Census,  Manufactur- 
ing Industries,  Ft.  II,  p.  xxix ;  the  statistics  for  1900  are  tabulated 
from  the  detailed  tables  of  the  Special  Report  of  the  Twelfth  Census 
on  Employees  and  Wages.  The  figures  for  1900  represent  male  wage- 
earners  16  years  of  age  and  over  in  34  important  manufacturing  indus- 
tries. The  figures  for  1890  represent  male  wage-earners  over  16  years 
of  age  in  50  manufacturing  industries  situated  in  105  of  the  larger 
cities.  In  1890,  unfortunately,  about  11  per  cent,  of  the  persons  in- 
vestigated were  officers,  firm  members  and  clerks,  and  their  inclusion 
makes  the  1890  wage  level  too  high,  and  prevents  accurate  compari 
son  between  the  two  classified  lists. 


158  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

there  were  in  the  United  States  1,779,648  male  agricul- 
tural laborers  not  belonging  to  the  family  of  the  farmer 
by  whom  they  were  employed ;  4,110,527  adult  male  wage- 
earners  in  the  manufacturing  industries ;  and  975,803 
railway  employees  who  may  he  regarded  as  wage-earners. 
The  average  annual  earnings  appear  to  have  been  $491  in 
manufactures,  $546  among  railway  workers,  and  not  more 
than  $250  among  agricultural  laborers.  Weighting  each 
of  these  averages  with  the  corresponding  number  of  wage- 
earners,  we  get  a  general  average  of  $436.  An  arithme- 
tic average  of  Avages  is  usually  misleading  because  a  skilled 
artisan  counts  for  as  many  as  two  or  three  unskilled 
laborers,  in  determining  such  an  average.  However,  it 
does  possess  this  useful  attribute,  that  it  is  always  greater 
than  the  median  wage — that  half-way  point  in  the 
ascending  wage-series  at  which  there  are  as  many  wage- 
earners  below  {i.e.,  receiving  less)  as  above  (i.e.,  receiving 
more).  Taking  this  fact  into  account  we  may  conclude 
with  entire  safety  that  at  least  one-half  of  the  adult  male 
wage-earners  of  the  United  States  earned  less  than  $436 
in  the  year  1900.* 

^  Agricultural  wages  from  Bulletin  No.  2G  fMiiiceUancoii.<t  Sirrirs)  of 
the  United  i^tatcs  Department  of  Agriculture,  p.  14  ;  wages  of  railway 
labor  from  Statistics  of  Raihrays,  1002,  pp.  3r)-8(>;  wages  in  mannfno- 
tures  from  Census  Reports,  1900,  Manufacturers,  Vt.  I,  pp.  cxl-cxxv. 
The  weighted  arithmetic  average  of  farm  wages,  monthlj'  without 
board,  was  $22.14  in  1902  and  .$20.2.3  in  1899,  from  which  the  monthly 
average  for  1900  was  estimated  at  .$20.87  or  $250  a  year,  assumiuy 
that  the  farm  lahorer  has  constant  etnploi/iiient.  The  yearly  estimate 
for  railway  labor  was  secured  by  dividing  tlie  total  yearly  expendi- 
ture upon  labor  by  the  total  number  of  employees,  exclusive  of  officers 
and  office  clerks,  working  on  the  last  day  of  June.  The  average  wage 
In  manufactures  is  secured  by  dividing  the  total  expenditures  ujion 
wages  by  the  average  number  of  wage-earners.     Census  statisticians  dis- 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT       159 

Witli  lialf  of  the  aclnlt  male  factory  workers  in  the  cities 
earning  less  than  $480  a  year,  and  half  of  the  male  wage- 
earners  throughout  the  United  States  generally,  earn- 
ing less  than  $436  a  year,  there  must  be  a  distressingly 
large  proportion  of  American  families  who  are  thrown 
into  poverty  periodically,  when  the  cliildren  are  too  young 
to  assist  the  head  of  the  family  or  when  the  head  of  the 
family  is  permanently  disabled,  sick  or  out  of  work. 
Wages  are  certainly  higher  in  the  United  States  than  in 
Europe,  and  there  is  probablj^  less  poverty,  but  not  as 
much  less  as  there  should  be,  because  certain  other  indus- 
trial conditions  are  worse  in  the  United  States  than  in 
Europe.  Thus  it  is  the  general  opinion  that  Americans 
work  themselves  out  at  an  earlier  age ;  and  it  seems  certain 
that  the  fluctuations  of  employment  are  more  violent  in 
the  United  States  than  in  Europe,  and  industrial  accidents 
much  more  frequent.  In  1902,  for  instance,  2,969  rail- 
way employees  were  killed  and  50,524  injured  in  the 
United  States.  These  numbers  increase  steadily  year  by 
year,  and  the  number  of  injured  seems  to  be  increasing, 
even  relatively.  Thus  in  1892,  one  employee  out  of  every 
322  w^as  killed,  and  one  out  of  every  29  injured ;  whiJe  in 
1902,  one  out  of  every  401  was  killed  and  one  out  of  24 
injured.     The  relative  increase  may  be  partly  due  to  the 

courage  the  use  of  this  average,  but  it  is  shown  to  be  entirely  safe,  as 
used  in  this  calculation,  by  the  careful  returns  published  in  the  recent 
census  report.  Employees  and  Wages.  (8ee  p.  1.57  above).  The  writer 
is  aware  of  the  statistical  dangers  attendant  upon  such  calculationa 
as  that  made  in  the  text,  but  bases  his  conclusion  upon  the  fact  that 
with  one  unimportant  exception  every  error  which  can  affect  the  above 
result,  would,  if  corrected,  tend  to  reduce  the  average  wage  of  $436, 
meaning  by  the  average  wage,  the  median  wage. 


IGO  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

better  enumeration  of  injuries,  but  the  ratio  ought  to  be 
decreasing  rapidly.  Life  is  apparently  cheap  in  our 
estimation, 

3.  Unemployment:  The  poverty  due  to  unemploy- 
ment, in  the  opinion  of  most  investigators,  is  far  more 
extensive  and  demoralizing  than  the  poverty  found 
among  those  who  work  regularly  at  low  wages,  whoso 
misery  may  be  charged  primarily  to  inadequate  income. 
Karl  Marx  himself  never  described  half  so  graphically  the 
degrading  influence  of  the  armj^  of  the  unemploj^ed,  as 
does  sober,  conservative  Mr.  Booth  in  his  Life  and  Labor 
in  London. 

The  evils  of  unemployment  are  well  recognized,  but  the 
extent  and  amount  of  it  are  not  so  well  known  as  they 
should  be.  The  Massachusetts  statistics  may  safely  be 
taken  as  indicative  of  general  conditions  in  normal  years. 
In  1885  a  thoroughgoing  investigation  of  unemployment 
was  made  in  Massachusetts,  which  included  all  persons  in 
the  state  employed  in  productive  industries,  and  covered 
the  entire  year  preceding  INIay,  1885.  Of  the  816,470 
breadwinners  of  the  state,  241,589  or  29.59  per  cent.^  had 
been  unemplo^yed  at  their  principal  occupations  on  an 
average  of  4.11  montlts  in  the  annual  period  covered.  The 
total  wage-earning  ])opulalion  lost  on  an  average  1.22 
months  from  their  pi'incipal  occupations.  Of  the  241,589 
unemployed  at  their  principal  occupations,  10,758  found 
work  at  other  or  secondary  occupations.     Taking  this 

^  The  Investigation  of  1000  sliowod  that  1?8.2  per  cent,  had  been  un- 
employed during  the  census  year.v  'I'he  detailed  statistics  for  1900 
would  probably  dlfifer  little  from  thos^  for  1885. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      Ifi] 

fact  into  account,  the  nneniploj'ed  lost  (luring  the  year 'an 
average  of  3.91  months  and  the  general  industrial  popula- 
tion, 1.16  months.  The  net  I'esult  of  the  investigation  was 
well  expressed  in  the  curt  statement  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Labor,  that  "about  one-third  of  the  total  persons 
engaged  in  remunerative  labor  were  unemployed  at  their 
principal  occupation  for  about  one-third  of  the  working 
time.  "^  At  the  lowest  estimate  the  whole  working 
])opulation  lost  on  an  average  9.7  per  cent,  of  their  whole 
time. 

"Unemployment"  is  such  a  comprehensive  term  and 
may  be  due  to  such  radically  different  causes,  that  it  is 
dangerous  to  discuss  the  subject  long  without  further 
division  and  classification.  The  unemployed  may  con- 
veniently be  divided  into  four  classes:-  (a)  Skilled  and 
efficient  workmen  who  are  temporarily  out  of  employment 
owing  to  bad  weather,  "shut-downs,"  and  other  seasonal 
"vicissitudes  of  work  in  a  normal  state  of  trade;"  (b) 
another  group  of  industrious  and  eiScient  workmen, 
deprived  of  employment  by  prolonged  industrial  depres- 
sion, revolution  of  fashion,  introduction  of  new  machin- 
ery, foreign  competition,  etc.,  who— although  trustworthy 
and  efficient— have  no  certain  prospect  of  obtaining 
employment  within  a  definite  period;  (c)  a  great  mass  of 
casual,  unskilled  laborers,  morally,  and  too  often  physic- 
ally, incapable  of  sustained  work;  and    (d)    the  semi- 

^  Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  (Massachusetts)  Bureau  of  Laior, 
pp.  164-294. 

s  Clai5sification  adapted  from  Drage  :  The  Unemployed,  Pt.  Ill,  ch.  2; 
and  Fifth  and  Final  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Labors  p.  73. 
11 


162  LABOR   PROBLExMS 

criminal  loafers,  dependents  and  delinquents,  in  short  the 
'  *  unemployable. ' ' 

Underlying  this  classification  is  the  tacit  question  :  wluit 
proportion  of  unemployment  is  primarily  due  to  personal 
inefficiency  or  delinquency,  and  what  proportion  due  to 
industrial  maladjustments  over  which  the  wage-earner 
has  no  control  ?  AVe  cannot  answer  this  question  quan- 
titatively. We  only. know  that  in  London  in  1889  the 
two  lowest  classes  constituted,  according  to  Booth,  8.4  per 
cent,  of  the  entire  population ;  and  that  the  industries  in 
which  they  are  intermittently  employed,  require  under 
their  present  management  an  enormous  excess  of  labor 
over  the  supply  necessary  to  do  the  average  amount  of 
work.  The  latter  fact  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the 
fluctuation  of  work  at  the  London  docks.  In  the  single 
month  of  December,  1891,  to  take  a  convenient  illustra- 
tion from  Mr.  Drage,^  the  number  of  men  employed  varied 
from  17,850,  in  round  figures,  on  the  third  day  of  the 
month,  to  11,850  on  the  day  before  Christmas.  Taking 
the  entire  year,  it  was  estimated  that  the  demands  of  the 
busiest  days  could  be  met  with  a  supply  of  20,000  men ; 
that  "good  work"  or  fairly  steady  employment  could  be 
provided  for  16,000,  and  that  the  number  of  men  compet- 
ing for  the  work  at  that  time,  exclusive  of  those  who 
joined  the  ranks  temporarily  from  other  trades,  was 
22,000.  In  other  words  the  work  apparently  could  not  be 
done  without  a  surplus  of  4,000  men,  and  there  actually 
was  at  least  a  surplus  of  6,000  men. 

^The  Unemployed,  pp.  131-132. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      163 

The  unemployment  and  widespread  suffering  caused 
by  panics  and  industrial  depressions  are  so  thoroughly 
appreciated  and  at  the  same  time  so  difficult  to  measure 
statistically,  that  we  may  pass  over  this  section  of  the 
topic  with  a  single  illustration.  In  the  manufacturing 
industries  of  INIassachusetts  the  "percentage  of  unem- 
ployment"^ in  the  three  autumn  months  is  normally  less 
than  one  per  cent.  In  1893,  the  "percentages  of  unem- 
plo\Tnent"  for  September,  October  and  November  were, 
respectively,  22.33, 15.27,  and  15.14.  In  the  carpet  manu- 
facture in  September  1893,  62.65  per  cent,  of  the  people 
dependent  upon  the  industry  were  idle. 

It  is  the  time  lost  by  seasonal  stoppages  and  what  may 
be  called  the  normal  maladjustment  of  industry,  that  is 
quite  generally  unappreciated.  In  New  York,  as  is 
shown  in  the  following  table,  from  5  to  13  per  cent,  of  the 
trade  unionists  of  the  state  are  out  of  employment  in  the 
busiest  season  of  the  year,  and  the  time  actually  lost, 
ihrough  unemployment  and  irregular  employment,  varies 
from  17  to  30  per  cent.  In  the  mining  industry,  owing  to 
storms,  accidents,  breakage  of  machinery,  etc.,  the  mines 
are  actually  closed  at  least  20  per  cent,  of  the  time,  and  the 
number  of  days  per  year  worked  by  the  average  miner 
varies,  or  did  vary  in  the  period  1890-1900,  from  171 
to  234  in  the  bituminous  mines,  and  from  150  to  203  in  the 
anthracite  mines.     In  1901,  **  a  year  of  more  than  usual 


*  The  "percentage  of  unemployment"  Is  secured  by  dividing  the  great- 
est number  employed  during  the  year  into  the  difference  between  that 
number  and  the  average  number  employed  during  the  month  In  ques^ 
tion. 


164  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

activity  in  mining  operations,"  said  the  Anthracite  Coal 
Commission  in  their  official  award,  "the  averac^e  number 
of  days  throughout  the  region  on  which  work  was  started 
was  approximately  260. ' '  This  system,  or  lack  of  system, 
entails  an  enormous  social  waste,  and  inculcates  habits  of 
idleness  which  cause,  as  one  would  expect,  a  large  amount 
of  unnecessary  unemployment.  Thus,  to  take  a  represent- 
ative case,  the  miners  in  the  nineteen  collieries  of  the 
Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  AVestern  Railroad  Company 
worked  in  1901  only  76  per  cent,  of  the  time  they  could 
have  worked.  In  ]\Iassachusetts  statistics  are  secured 
which  show  the  general  period  of  operation  of  manufac- 
turing plants.  There  are  in  an  ordinary  year  about  306 
working  days.  In  normal  years  about  67  per  cent,  of  the 
establishments  run  300  days  or  more ;  about  23  per  cent, 
run  from  250  to  300  days ;  and  about  10  per  cent,  less  than 
250  days.  From  this  we  may  gather  some  idea  of  the  aver- 
age period  during  which  the  factory  doors  are  closed  to 
everybody.  Further  light  upon  the  fluctuation  or  irregu- 
larity of  employment  in  the  manufacturing  industries  of 
Massachusetts  appears  from  the  fact  that  in  normal  years 
the  smallest  number  employed  at  any  time  during  the  year 
is  usually  less  than  25  per  cent,  of  the  largest  number 
employed  during  the  year.  That  Massachusetts  is  no 
worse  in  this  respect  than  other  states,  is  borne  out  by  the 
following  self-explanatory  table,  based  upon  returns  from 
the  labor  organizations  of  New  York.  It  may  be  stated, 
that,  wdth  respect  to  unemployment,  the  third  quarter  is 
the  best,  and  the  first  quarter  the  worst,  part  of  the  j^ear 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      1G5 


Onemployment  Among  the  Members  of  New  York  Labor 
Organizations 


Year 

Percentage  of  Members  Idle' 

Percentage  of  Work  - 

ing  Time  Lost  in 

First  and  Third 

Quarters* 

At  End  of 
September 

During  Entire 
Third  Quarter 

1897 

13.8  percent. 

6.5  per  cent. 

30.3  per  cent. 

1898 

13.1    "      '< 

5.7    "      " 

24.0    "      " 

1899 

4.7    "       " 

2.3    "       " 

18.0    "      " 

1900 

13,3    "       '• 

5.4    "       " 

20.5    «•       " 

1901 

6.9    "       " 

3.1    "       " 

17.2    "       " 

1903 

5.7    "       " 

1.9    "       " 

13.4    "       " 

1903 

8.9    "       " 

3.3    "       " 

Even  in  such  fat  years  as  1899,  1900  and  1901,  it  thus 
appears,  the  average  trade  unionists  loses  one  out  of  every 
five  or  six  working  days.  When  we  remember  that  the 
trade  unions  include  no  farm  laborers,  few  women,  and 
practically  none  of  the  lower  grades  of  unskilled  labor — 
among  whom  the  proportion  of  time  lost  is  probably 
greater  than  the  "average— the  New  York  figures  seem 
almost  incredible.  And  in  Great  Britain,  indeed,  condi- 
tions appear  to  be  much  better.  There  the  annual  average 
proportion  of  trade  unionists  unemployed  was  2.4  per 
cent,  in  1899,  2.9  per  cent,  in  1900,  and  3.8  per  cent,  in 
1901,  while  at  no  time  between  1887  and  1901,  inclusive, 
was  the  annual  average  proportion  as  high  as  9  per  cent. 
The  wide  disparity  between  the  New  York  and  the  British 

»From  Dcpt.  of  Lahor  TiuUctin    CS.  Y.)   Dec.   1903. 
*  From  Tuentitth  Ati.  Rep.  of  the  (y.  Y.)  Bureau  of  Lahor  Statistics, 
p.  394. 


166 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


figures  probably  results  in  part  from  a  real  excess  of 
unemployment  in  New  York,  and  in  part  from  an  under- 
statement of  the  evil  in  Great  Britain. ' 

In  the  preceding  discussion,  nothing  was  said  of  the 
unemployment  due  to  sickness  and  strikes,  largelj^  for  the 
reason  that  these  causes  affect  all  wage-earners  alike  and 
do  not  create  distinct  classes  of  the  unemployed.  They 
are,  however,  constant  factors  of  great  importance.  A 
definite  idea  of  the  unemployment  due  to  these  causes  may 
be  obtained  from  the  following  statistics  of  the  causes  of 
idleness  among  the  members  of  the  labor  organizations  of 
New  York.  The  table  deserves  the  most  careful  study, 
and  furnishes  additional  evidence  of  the  preponderating 
influence  of  the  industrial,  as  distinguished  from  the 
social  and  personal,  causes  of  unemployment. 


Percentage  Proportion  of  Idleness 

Due  to 

At  the  end  of  September 

1903 

1902 

1901 

1900 

Lack  of  work 

Bad  weather  and  lack  of 
materials 

Strike  or  lockout  .... 

Sickness  or  disability.  . 

Other  reasons 

Not  stated 

Total 

53.9 

4.5 
29.5 

5.8 
5.8 
0.5 

56.8 

12.6 

12.5 

12.4 

5.3 

0.4 

60.5 

9.4 
16.0 
9.9 
3.7 
0.5 

75.5 

0.5 

13.0 

4.7 

I      6.3 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

'  Convincing  reasons  for  the  belief  that  the  British  figures  under- 
state the  evil  may  be  fouud  iu  llobson's  Prolhm  of  the  Unemployed, 
\:h.    II. 


POVWITY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT       167 

In  concludinj^'  this  discussion  of  unemployment,  oppor- 
tunity may  be  taken  to  emphasize  two  vitally  important 
truths  which  are  well  understood  by  students  of  this 
problem,  but  which  ought  to  become  the  common  property 
of  every  one  who  exercises  through  the  ballot  a  share  in  the 
determination  of  public  policy.  The  unemployed  at  any 
time  fall  naturally,  as  has  been  said,  into  two  great 
classes:  on  the  one  hand  those  who  are  idle  because  of 
industrial  maladjustment ;  on  the  other  hand  those  who 
are  idle  because  of  inefficiency.  The  first  of  those  funda- 
mental truths  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  pertains 
to  the  economic  worthlessness  and  contagious  degradation 
of  the  inefficients,^  who  offer  a  supply  of  labor,  such  as  it 
is,  Avhich  is  permanently  in  excess  of  the  demand,  even  in 
seasons  of  prosperity.  Miserably  clothed,  housed  and 
fed,  as  Mr.  Booth  points  out,  they  are  nevertheless  not 
self-supporting ;  they  constitute  a  burden  not  only  upon 
the  tax-pajdng  public,  but  upon  the  charitable  poor  them- 


^  Mr.  John  A.  Hobson  in  his  Prohlcms  of  Povertyi  (p.  177)  waxes  In- 
dignant over  the  charge  of  inefficiency  and  asserts  that :  "To  taunt 
them  [the  poor]  with  their  incapacity,  and  to  regard  it  as  the  cause  of 
poverty,  is  nothing  else  than  a  piece  of  blind  insolence."  Along  side  of 
this  may  be  placed  the  discriminative  opinion  of  John  Burns,  probably 
the  most  prominent  and  active  labor  leader  in  the  English-speaking 
world  :  "In  spite  of  what  some  advocates  of  work  for  the  unemployed 
may  say.  I  contend,  as  a  socialist  »  *  *  that  until  the  differentia- 
tion of  the  laborer  from  the  loafer  takes  place,  the  unemployed  ques- 
tion can  never  be  properly  discussed  and  dealt  with.  Till  the  tramp, 
thief,  and  ne'er-do-well,  however  pitiable  he  may  be,  is  dealt  with  dis. 
tinctly  from  the  genuine  worker,  no  permanent  benefit  will  result  to 
any  of  them.  The  gentleman  who  gets  up  to  look  for  work  at  mid- 
day, and  prays  that  he  may  not  find  it,  is  undeserving  of  pity."' 
[Quoted  in  the  Ticenly-Fourth.  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachufietts 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  p.  2'A.]  The  doctrine  that  the  poor  are 
wholly  irresponsible  for  their  condition  is  about  as  demoralizing  as 
its  antithesis  is  false  and  unjust. 


IQg  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

selves,  and  by  their  intermittent  and  nnregnlated  com- 
petition in  the  labor  market,  drag  down  the  next  higher 
class  of  more  regular  and  more  efficient  workers.  "Hu- 
manly speaking,  the  existence  of  this  class,  consisting  so 
largely  of  the  inefficient  and  the  worthless,  may  be  inev- 
itable, but  economically  their  services  are  not  wanted  at 
all.  The  work  of  the  world  could  be  performed  better  and 
more  cheaply  without  them ;  what  they  do  could  be  easily 
done  by  the  classes  above  in  their  now  partly  occupied 
time,  and  the  money  so  earned  be  better  spent.  "^ 

The  second  of  these  vitally  important  truths  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  inefficiency  of  the  * '  superfluous  incom- 
petents" is  due  in  part  at  least  to  industrial  maladjust- 
ments which  arbitrarily  throw  out  of  work  the  deserving 
and  undeserving,  the  efficient  and  inefficient,  the  skilled 
and  unskilled.  "The  irregularity  immediate!}'  resulting 
from  fluctuations  in  demand,  the  seasons,  and  the  other 
causes  quoted  above,  is  a  sufficiently  serious  evil  in  itself, 
but  other  results,  as  serious,  if  not  more  so,  follow  in  its 
track.  Casual  employment  is  found  almost  invariably 
to  involve  deterioration  in  both  the  physique  and  charac- 
ter of  those  engaged  in  it.  Their  physical  strength  is 
reduced  by  the  alternation  of  longer  or  shorter  periods  of 
work  with  intervals  of  slackness  and  consequent  privation. 
*  *  *  The  hopeless  hand-to-mouth  kind  of  existence 
into  which  they  thus  tend  to  drift  is  of  all  things  least 
conducive  to  thrift ;  self-reliance  is  weakened,  and  habits 
of    idleness,    unsteadiness    and    intemperance    formed. 

*•  Booth,  Life  and  Labor  in  London,  Final  Volume,  p.  207. 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      169 

*  *  *  The  effects  of  such  casual  work  are  even  more 
marked  in  the  next  generation.  Apart  from  inherited 
tendencies,  the  children  of  this  class  grow  up  without  any 
training,  technical  or  moral,  such  as  would  fit  them  to 
enter  a  trade,  or  if  they  entered  it,  to  remain  in  it.  They 
are  forced  to  join  the  ranks  of  unskilled  and  casual  labor, 
and  thus,  under  the  same  influences  which  beset  their 
parents,  they  not  only  become  incapable  of  regular  work, 
but  cease  to  desire  it,  preferring  to  pick  up  a  precarious 
living  by  means  of  odd  jobs  and  charity."^ 

AVhat  has  been  said  upon  these  subjects  may  be  sum- 
marized by  a  brief  statement  of  the  results  of  a  detailed 
study  of  152  workingmen's  families,  recently  made  by 
the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor.-  These 
families  were  probably  somewhat  above  the  average  :  they 
were  methodical  enough  to  keep  accounts,  129  had  sewing 
machines,  21  possessed  pianos  or  organs,  26  enjoyed  bath- 
rooms, and  their  houses  had  on  an  average  more  than  one 
room  for  each  member  of  the  family.  The  heads  of  the 
families  earned,  on  an  average,  $594  a  year.  But  in  127 
out  of  the  152  cases,  the  earnings  of  the  head  were  not  suf- 
ficient to  pay  the  family  expenses ;  minor  children  con- 
tributed 11.3  per  cent,  of  the  aggregate  family  income ; 
32  wives  worked  outside  of  the  family,  contributing  5.29 
per  cent,  of  the  total  income ;  in  47  cases,  the  total  earn- 
ings of  all  combined  were  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  ex- 
penditures, and  recourse  was  had  to  savings,  charity,  or 


^  Drage,  The  Vnemployed,  pp.  159-161. 

*  Thirty-Second  Annual  Report,  pp.  239-314. 


170  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

otlier  forms  of  relief.  But  perhaps  the  following  fact  re« 
veals  the  greatest  evil  of  the  American  industrial  system. 
The  building  workers  included  in  this  investigation  lost 
on  an  average  68  working  days  in  this  year  (1901)  of 
unusually  favorable  conditions,  and  the  heads  of  families 
in  general  lost  35  working  days,  or  11  per  cent,  of  the  pos- 
sible working  time.  Of  this  number,  7.89  days  w'ere  lost 
on  account  of  sickness,  22.41  days  on  account  of  slack 
work,  and  5.15  days  from  other  causes.  The  curse  of  the 
American  working  man  is  irregular  employment. 

References  :  An  enormous  amount  of  information  upon  the  topics 
discussed  In  the  text,  together  with  suggestive  references  and  bibliog- 
raphies, may  be  found  in  Bliss'  Encyclopedia  of  Social  Reform,  and 
Strong's  yearbook  Social  Progress,  both  of  which  are  inclined  to  exag- 
gerate, perhaps,  the  darker  side.  The  Reports  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  of  the  State  of  Nciv  York,  are  particularly  useful  to  the  more 
advanced  student ;  while  first  hand  studies  of  poverty  in  great  cities 
may  be  found  in  the  Hull-House  Maps  and  Papers  and  the  Seventh  Spe- 
cial  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Commissioner  of  Labor.  Stirring 
descriptions  of  poverty  in  various  cities  may  be  found  in  Mr.  Riis'  How 
the  Other  Half  Lives,  Children  of  the  Poor,  and  Ten  Years'  Battl" ;  Lon- 
don's People  of  the  Abyss;  and  the  symposium  published  by  Scribner's, 
entitled  The  Poor  in  Great  Cities.  Isador  Ladof's  recent  book  Ameri- 
can Pauperism,  contains  a  medley  of  interesting  facts.  Interpreted  from 
the  socialistic  viewpoint.  Ilobson's  Problems  of  Poverty  and  The  Social 
Problem,  and  Mrs.  Bosanquet's  Strength  of  the  People  pay  particular 
attention  to  the  causes  of  poverty,  the  first  emphasizing  the  responsi- 
bility of  society,  the  other  the  responsibility  of  the  family.  On  the 
whole  the  most  valuable  references  are  the  works  cited  In  the  text,  par- 
ticularly Booth's  Life  and  Labor  in  London.  Rowntree's  Poverty,  and 
Warner's  little  classic,  American  Charities,  which  contains  a  useful  bib- 
liography ;  but  by  far  the  best  discussion  of  the  extent  of  poverty  in  the 
United  States  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Robert  Hunter's  forthcoming  book, 
Poverty.  The  causes  and  remedies  for  unemployment  are  discussed  in 
a  suggestive  way  in  Ilobson's  The  Problem  of  the  T'nemplnycd,  and 
Drage's  The  Unemployed.  Studies  of  unemployment  at  specific  periods 
in  the  Tinited  States  may  be  found  in  the  Massachusetts  Report  on  the 
Unemployed  (1895),  the  mth  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bu- 
reau of  Statistics  of  Labor,  and  the  Special  Census  Report  on  "Occupa- 
tions" (1004),  while  continuous  statistics  may  be  found  in  the  Bulle- 
tins and  Reports  of  the  New  York  Department  of  Labor  and  The  Ameri- 
can Fcderationist.  The  best  short  discussion  of  the  American  statistlca 
Of  unemployment  is  contained   in   the  Final  Report  of  the  Industrial 


POVERTY,  EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT      171 

Comtviasion,  pp.  746-76.'?.     For  references  upon  wages  see  the  bltoUog< 
raphlcal  note  to  the  last  chapter. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Poverty : 

(a)  LadoflP.   "Extent  of  Poverty  In   America,"  American  Paw 

pcrisvi .  pp.  1 1  -40. 

(b)  Claghorn.     Immigration    and    Pauperism,    Annals    Of    the 

American  Acadany  of  I'oHtical  and  Social  Science,  July, 
1904.   pp.   187-20.'). 

(c)  "Charity  and   Family   Responsibility,"   (Eng.)   Charity  Or- 

ganization lUrieif.  .Tuly.  1904.  pp.  26-41. 

(d)  Hobson,    "Moral    Aspects   of   Poverty,"    Problems   of   Pov- 

crty,  ch.  IX,  pp.  171-182. 

(e)  Booth,     Conclusions     and     Suggestions.     Life   and   Labor 

of   the  People   in   London,   Final    Volume,   ch.    VI,    pp. 

200-216. 
(/)    Bosanquet,  "The  Source  of  Poverty,"  The  Strength  of  the 

People,  ch.  Ill,  pp,  101-119. 
(g)    "The  Remedy."  ihid.,  ch.  IV.  pp.  120-141. 
(ft)   Riis,    Remedies,    The  Peril   and   the  Preservation  of   the 

Home,  ch.  IV,  pp.  157-190. 

2.  Unemployment : 

(a)  "Unemployment  in  the  United  States,"  Final  Report  of  the 

Industrial  Commission,  pp.  746-763. 

(b)  Hobson,    Growth   of   Unemployment,   Problem  of  the   Un- 

employed, pp.  3.')-45. 

(c)  "Palliatives  of  Unemployment,"  ibid.,  ch.,  VIII,  pp.  126-160. 

(d)  Causes   and   Remedies   of    Irregular   Employment,    Booth, 

Life  and  Labor,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  327-361. 

[Note  :  For  valuable  statistics  upon  the  subjects  discussed  In  this 
chapter,  which  appeared  too  late  to  be  incorporated  in  the  text,  sec  A^ 
pendiz  C] 


BOOK  II 


REMEDIES 


CHAPTER  VI 

STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS 

In  the  preceding  chapters  attention  has  been  called  to 
some  of  the  prominent  evils  which  affect  the  existing 
industrial  system.  Book  II  is  concerned  with  the  means 
employed  to  combat  these  evils,  although  consideration 
can  be  given  to  only  a  few  of  the  practical  agencies  of 
betterment,  those  which  have  been  used  most  persistently 
or  most  successfully,  and  which  have  come  to  constitute 
in  almost  every  case,  important  problems  in  themselves. 
Historically  the  first  among  such  agencies  is  the  strike. 
At  the  present  time  it  may  do  more  harm  than  good— we 
do  not  wish  to  prejudge  this  question.  But  nevertheless 
it  is  the  instinctive  weapon  of  the  wage-earning  classes, 
it  is  still  frequently— far  too  frequently— employed  by 
new  unions,  and  there  is  no  sign  of  its  abandonment. 
For  these  reasons  it  is  considered  first  among  the  agencies 
of  betterment. 

1.  Definitions:  The  strike  may  he  defined  as  a  tem- 
porary combination  of  wage-earners  to  effect  some  pur- 
pose— usually  the  improvement  or  maintenance  of  the 
conditions  of  their  employment — hy  a  concerted  cessation 
of  work,  during  which  active  measures  are  taken  hy  the 
strikers  to  retain  the  places  which  they  have  temporarily 

175 


176  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

vacated.  This  is,  perhaps,  a  rather  pedantic  definition  oi 
a  very  familiar  thing.  It  serves,  however,  to  emphasize 
two  very  essential  points:  (a)  Strikes  are  not  always 
declared  for  the  laudable  purpose  of  improving  condi- 
tions of  employment.  Strikers,  indeed,  are  often  ani- 
mated by  the  loftiest  altruism,  but  sometimes  they  are 
animated  chiefly  by  a  desire  for  mere  revenge  or  retalia- 
tion, (b)  Secondly,  the  mistake  must  not  be  made  of 
assuming  that  the  strike  is  a  mere  cessation  of  work. 
When  workmen  quietly  leave  their  employer  and  seek 
work  elsewhere,  we  do  not  describe  their  action  as  a 
* 'strike."  In  the  average  or  normal  strike  measures  are 
always  taken  to  induce  competing  workmen  not  to  take 
the  places  vacated  by  the  strikers.  In  other  words  an 
attempt— i^  may  be  lawful  or  unlawful— is  made  to  pre- 
vent the  employer  from  obtaining  an  adequate  supply  of 
labor. 

Strikers,  however,  frequently  fail  in  preventing  the 
employer  from  securing  an  adequate  supply  of  labor,  and 
in  this  event  other  forms  of  pressure  are  brought  to  bear 
upon  him.  When  iiistead  of,  or  in  addition  to.  endeavor- 
ing to  prevent  the  employer  from  securing  an  adequate 
amount  of  labor,  measures  are  taJxcn  to  deprive  him  of 
his  customers  or  the  materials  necessary  in  his  husiness, 
the  combination  becomes  to  this  extent  a  boycott. 

2.  History  of  Strikes:  Strikes  are  as  old  as  the  wage 
system  itself,  and  the  slave  insurrections,  peasant  revolts 
and  labor  wars  which  frequently  occurred  before  the 
emergence  of  the  wage  system,  prove  the  existence  in  that 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  ^77 

earlier  epoch  of  all  the  elements  of  the  strike  save  those 
which  arise  from  that  system  itself.  In  Germany  we  have 
references  to  a  strike  among  the  journeymen  girdlemakers 
of  Breslan  as  early  as  1329,  and  in  1349  the  tanners  of 
Paris  struck  for  an  increase  of  wages.  In  England,  Mr. 
and  INIrs.  Webb  have  unearthed  evidence  of  a  strike— and 
possibly  of  a  permanent  trade  union— as  early  as  1387 
among  the  serving  men  of  the  London  cordwainers ;  while 
in  France  during  the  fifteenth  century,  according  to 
D'Avenel  in  his  Paysans  et  Ouvriers  Depuis  Sept  Cents 
Ans,  strikes  were  plentiful,  not  so  numerous  as  to-day,  but 
relatively  quite  as  serious  in  their  consequences  and  more 
violent  in  their  conduct.  An  amusing  account  of  a  six- 
teenth century  strike  is  noted  by  the  "Webbs  in  the  opening 
chapter  of  their  History  of  Trade  Unionism.  "In  1538 
the  bishop  of  Ely  reports  to  Cromwell  that  twenty-one 
journej-men  shoemakers  of  Wisbech  have  assembled  on  a 
hill  without  the  town  and  sent  three  of  their  number  to 
summon  all  the  master  shoemakers  to  meet  them,  in  order 
to  insist  upon  an  advance  in  their  wages,  threatening  that 
*  there  shall  none  come  into  the  town  to  serve  for  that 
wages  within  a  twelfth-month  and  a  day,  but  we  woU  have 
an  harme  or  a  legge  of  hym,  except  they  woU  take  an  othe, 
as  we  have  doon.'  " 

Just  when  the  first  strike  occurred  in  the  American 
colonies  is  not  known,  but  in  the  celebrated  trial  of  the 
journeymen  cordwainers  at  New  York  in  1810,  reference 
was  made  to  a  strike  among  certain  bakers— probably  of 
New  York  City— which  occurred  in  1741,  and  in  Phila- 
12 


178  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

delphia  an  association  of  journeymen  shoemakers  con- 
ducted a  series  of  strikes  in  1796, 1798,  and  1799,  referring 
to  which  one  of  the  employers  involved  said  "that  for 
several  years  he  had  lost  as  much  as  $4,000  annually 
through  inability  to  fulfill  his  contracts,  consequent  upon 
the  refusal  of  the  journeymen 's  association  to  allow  their 
members  to  work  in  his  shop  along  with  men  who  did  not 
belong  to  the  organization.  It  was  also  developed  in  the 
testimony  that  workmen  had  been  threatened  and  even 
severely  beaten,  for  working  against  the  orders  of  the 
association,  and  that  practically  the  modern  system  of 
boycotting  was  in  full  operation."^  By  1809  the  terms 
"scab,"  "strike,"  "general  turn-out,"  etc.,  were  in  com- 
mon use.  By  1835  strikes  had  become  so  common  that  the 
New  York  Daily  Advertiser  declared  :  * '  Strikes  are  all  the 
fashion."  With  the  violent  and  widespread  railroad 
strikes  of  1877,  came  the  first  strike  of  national  magnitude 
and  importance,  which  seriously  impaired  the  business  of 
the  country  and  necessitated  the  calling  out  of  state  and 
national  troops.  The  Commissioner  of  Labor  has  secured, 
without  attempting  a  complete  or  exhaustive  study,  record 
of  1,440  strikes  and  lockouts  which  occurred  in  the  United 
States  prior  to  1881. 

It  is  impossible  to  make  any  detailed  study  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  strike  in  this  work,  but  the  ancient  origin  of 
the  strike  and  its  persistent  recurrence  throughout  modern 
history  warrant  the  conclusion  that  the  strike  itself  has 
been  an  inseparable  accompaniment  of  the  wage  system, 

^Sixteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  p.  932. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  179 

Wherever  wage  contracts  are  made,  there  they  will  be  ter- 
minated :  this  much  is  a  truism.  But  that  wherever  wage 
contracts  are  made,  workmen  will  combine  to  terminate 
them  in  concert,  and  unite  in  inducing  other  workmen  not 
to  take  their  places,  is  something  more  than  a  truism. 

3.  Statistics  of  Strikes:  Since  1881  the  Bureau  of  La- 
bor has  regularly  investigated  the  strikes  and  lockouts  oc- 
curring in  this  country,  which  lasted  for  one  day  or  more ; 
and  the  principal  statistics  for  the  twenty  years  1881- 
1900  are  given  in  this  and  the  two  succeeding  sections. 
For  the  most  part  the  figures  are  left  to  tell  their  own 
story,  and  the  reader  is  advised  to  study  them  carefully 
as  they  are  full  of  significance.  In  the  original  tables, 
strikes  and  lockouts  are  distinguished,  but,  as  the  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  truly  says, ' '  these  two  classes  of  indus- 
trial disturbances  are  practically  alike,"  and  in  the 
following  tables  the  statistics  of  strikes  and  lockouts  are 
combined  whenever  possible.^ 

The  figures  in  Table  I  speak  for  themselves.  Contrary 
to  the  general  opinion,  perhaps,  nearly  52  per  cent,  of  the 
employees  involved  in  strikes  succeeed  in  winning  all  or 
part  of  their  demands ;  and  since  1886,  at  least,  strikes 
have  not  been  increasing  as  fast  as  the  population  of  the 
country.  Thus  between  1890  and  1900  the  general  popu- 
lation increased  20.7  per  cent.,  the  breadwinners  ten  years 
of  age  and  over,  27.8  per  cent.,  and  the  wage  earners  in 
manufacturing  industries  25.1  per  cent.     On  the  other 


*  statistical    material    from    the    Sixteenth    Annual    Report    of    the 
(Lnitcd  l:itutes)   Commissioner  of  Labor,  pp.  11-42. 


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STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  181 

hand  there  were  more  strikes  in  1890  than  in  1900,  and 
the  average  annual  number  of  strikes  in  the  five  years 
1886-1890  v;as  1,406  as  compared  with  1,390  in  the  five 
years  1896-1900.  The  similar  averages  for  the  employees 
involved,  were  369,200  and  385,564,  respectively,  an 
increase  of  less  than  5  per  cent.  Although  there  has  been 
undoubtedly  a  large  increase  in  strikes  since  1900,  this 
increase  is  probably  due  to  temporary  conditions,  and 
taking  one  year  with  another,  there  is  no  reason  to  distrust 
the  plain  testimony  of  the  figures  that  strikes  are  not 
increasing  as  rapidly  as  the  industrial  population. 

4.  Trade  Unions  and  the  Strike:  The  relative  de- 
crease of  strikes  is  undoubtedly  due,  I  think,  to  improve- 
ment in  the  organization  and  personnel  of  the  trade  union. 
Before  a  strike  can  be  declared  in  our  larger  and  stronger 
trade  unions,  the  local  officers  must  attempt  to  settle  the 
difficulty  by  amicable  agreement,  the  local  union  must 
approve  the  strike  by  a  secret  ballot  in  which  a  two-thirds 
vote  is  often  necessary  to  support  the  strike,  the  national 
president  must  be  called  in  to  attempt  a  peaceful  settle- 
ment, and  then,  if  all  these  negotiations  fail,  the  strike 
must  be  approved  by  the  national  officers  or  the  board  of 
directors  before  it  can  be  declared.  All  this  means 
increasing  control  by  the  national  unions  whose  officers 
are  not  only  as  a  rule  much  more  intelligent  and  conserv- 
ative than  the  local  officers,  but  have  much  more  to  lose 
in  place,  power  and  prestige,  by  an  unsuccessful  strike. 
Labor  leaders  are  often  charged  with  inciting  satisfied 
workmen  to  strike,  and  the  charge  is  true  in  part/  they 


182  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

often  do  enconrasre  fairly  well  satisfied  men  to  strike  when 
times  are  good  and  the  prospect  of  winning:  excellent.  But 
we  too  often  forget  the  strikes  they  discourage  or  prevent 
when  times  are  hard,  and  workmen  dissatisfied,  ready  for 
strikes  or  even  violence. 

The  trade  union  makes  for  the  regulation,  not  for  the 
suppression  of  strikes;  for  their  encouragement  in  season, 
for  their  discouragement  out  of  season;  hut  on  the  whole 
its  influence  is  conservative.'^  If  we  are  to  maintain  an 
attitude  of  impartiality,  all  these  truths  must  be  ac- 
knowledged. Nearly  forty  years  ago,  in  1866,  the  com- 
mittee on  strikes  of  the  great  National  Labor  Union 
reported  as  its  "deliberate  opinion  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
[strikes]  are  productive  of  great  injury  to  the  laboring 
classes;  that  many  have  been  injudicious  and  ill-advised 
and  the  result  of  impulse  rather  than  of  principle  and 
reason ;  that  those  who  have  been  the  fiercest  in  advocacy 
have  been  the  first  to  advocate  submission."  As  late  as 
1880  the  National  Convention  of  the  Knights  of  Labor 
formally  resolved  that:  "It  is  the  opinion  of  our  order 
that  strikes  are,  as  a  rule,  productive  of  more  injury  than 
benefit  to  working  people ;  consequently  all  attempts  to 
foment  strikes  will  be  discouraged."     To-day  all  this  is 

'  This  rnther  complex  statement  seems  to  be  borne  out  by  the  fact 
that  nIthniiRh  strikes  are  much  more  frequent  in  Great  Hritain  and  the 
United  States  than  in  the  contlnontnl  countries  of  Europe,  In  which — 
with  the  possible  exception  of  Denmark — labor  organization  has  not 
reached  such  a  high  degree  of  development,  they  are,  nevertheless,  de- 
creasing In  the  two  first  named  countries.  According  to  the  Report  of 
the  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  cxxix,  the  annual  number  of 
strikers  per  10,000  of  the  industrial  population  is  about  330  in  the 
United  States,  270  In  Great  Hritain.  183  in  France,  150  In  Austria,  138 
In  Italy  and  111  In  Germany. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  183 

changed,  aud  the  Industrial  Commission  summing  up  the 
testimon}^  of  the  most  prominent  labor  leaders  on  this 
subject  aptly  and  correctly  says:  ''While  the  most  intel- 
ligent and  conservative  labor  leaders  freely  recognize  the 
expensiveness  of  strikes,  and  desire  to  supplant  them  as 
far  as  possible  with  peaceful  methods  of  negotiation,  they 
almost  universally  maintain  that  workingmen  gain,  in  the 
long  run,  far  more  than  they  lose  by  the  general  policy  of 
striking. ' '  This  then  is  the  first  truth :  that  the  strike  of 
the  past  was  for  the  most  part  sporadic,  violent  and  pas- 
sionate, a  resentful  rebellion  against  conditions  regarded 
as  too  grievous  to  be  longer  endured,  while  to-day  the 
strike  has  become  a  business  proposition,  a  deliberate 
demand  formulated  when  the  time  is  ripe,  an  index  of 
prosperity. 

The  second  truth  is  that  this  calculating  regulation  has 
lessened  not  only  the  violence  but  even  the  relative  num- 
ber of  strikes.  In  Table  II,  which  follows,  the  strikes 
ordered  by  labor  organizations  are  compared  with  those 
not  ordered  by  organizations.  Of  the  "organized"  or 
"union"  strikes  there  Avere  4,358  in  the  five  years  1886- 
1890,  and  only  4,175  in  the  five  years  1896-1900.  Of  the 
"unorganized"  or  "non-union"  strikes,  there  were  2,319 
in  the  former  period,  but  2,560  in  the  latter  period.  The 
"union"  strikes  decreased  4  per  cent.;  the  "non-union" 
strikes  increased  10  per  cent.  And  as  our  trade  unions 
get  stronger  and  older,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  strike 
will  be  even  more  vigorously  restricted,  because  it  is  the 
new  and  poorly  organized  unions  which  foment  strikes. 


184 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


TABLE  II 

Showing  the  Results  of  Strikes  Ordered  by  Organizations 
AND  Those  Not  Ordered  by  Organizations  ;  1881-1900 


Year 

Strikes  ordered  by  organizations 

Strikes  not  ordered  by 
organizations 

Number 

of 
strikes 

Per  cent. 

of  establishments 

in  which  strikes 

Number 

of 
strikes 

Per  cent. 

of  establishments 

in  which  strikes 

Suc- 
ceeded 

Suc- 
ceeded 
partly 

Failed 

Suc- 
ceeded 

Suc- 
ceeded 
partly 

Failed 

1881  . 

222 

65.6 

6.5 

27.9 

249 

48.2 

8.7 

43.1 

1882  . 

218 

56.4 

9.6 

34.1 

236 

44.7 

3.7 

51.5 

1883  . 

271 

64.3 

18.4 

17.3 

207 

26.2 

4.1 

69.7 

1884  . 

239 

55.8 

3.3 

40.9 

204 

30.8 

6.9 

62.3 

1885  . 

361 

63.7 

10.5 

25.8 

284 

26.2 

7.1 

66.7 

1886  . 

760 

33.5 

20.5 

40.0 

672 

41.6 

7.4 

51.0 

1887  . 

952 

48.4 

7.2 

44.4 

483 

27.0 

7.2 

65.8 

1888  . 

616 

50.2 

5.0 

38.8 

288 

25.0 

8.9 

66.1 

1889  . 

724 

45.6 

21.4 

33.0 

351 

49.9 

9.3 

40.8 

1890  . 

1,306 

54.0 

10.2 

35.8 

525 

39.9 

8.4 

51.7 

1891  . 

1,284 

38.5 

8.1 

53.4 

432 

36.8 

11.7 

51.6 

1893  . 

918 

39.3 

8.8 

51.9 

380 

39.2 

8.2 

52.6 

1893  . 

906 

53.9 

10.9 

35.2 

399 

28.4 

6.2 

65.4 

1894  . 

847 

37.3 

13.7 

49.0 

501 

43.9 

12.1 

43.9 

1895  . 

658 

59.2 

10.1 

30.7 

555 

27.2 

9.2 

63.6 

1896  . 

602 

62.5 

6.5 

31.0 

363 

29.9 

15.7 

54.4 

1897  . 

596 

59.7 

29.5 

10.8 

482 

30.8 

12.5 

56.6 

1898  . 

638 

69.7 

6.2 

24.1 

418 

34.0 

7.6 

58.4 

1899  . 

1,115 

76.3 

14.2 

9.5 

682 

36.6 

14.9 

48.5 

1900  . 
Total. 

1,164 

48.1 

21.9 

30.0 

615 

29.9 

7.0 

63.0 

14,457 

52. 9 

13.6 

33.5 

8,326 

35.6 

9.0 

55.4 

STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  185 

Table  II  not  only  emphasizes  the  superior  success  of  the 
"organized"  strike,  but  it  contains  strong  evidence  of 
that  deliberate  regulation  of  strikes  which  has  been 
emphasized  in  the  preceding  paragraphs.  Compare  the 
number  and  results  of  the  two  classes  of  strikes  in  the 
industrial  depression  which  began  in  1893.  The  labor 
organizations,  realizing  that  conditions  were  not  auspi- 
cious, steadily  restricted  the  number  of  strikes,  with  the 
result  that  in  this  period  of  stagnation  the  percentage  of 
successful  strikes  was  actually  higher  than  in  normal 
years  (53.88  per  cent,  during  1893-1897  as  contrasted 
with  52.86  per  cent,  during  1881-1900).  Among  the 
"unorganized"  strikes,  however,  the  movement  was 
reversed.  As  times  grew  hard  and  w^ages  fell,  the  dis- 
content of  the  unorganized  workmen  vented  itself  in  an 
increased  number  of  strikes,  with  the  inevitable  result  of 
a  diminution  in  the  percentage  of  successful  strikes 
(32.82  per  cent,  during  1893-97  ;  35.56  during  1881-1900). 

5.  Causes  of  Strikes:  In  Table  III,  which  follows, 
valuable  information  is  given  concerning  the  cause  of 
strikes,  and  the  success  or  failure  of  the  various  kinds  of 
strikes.  Among  other  interesting  data,  information  is 
given  concerning  the  three  species  of  strikes  upon  which 
the  public  seems  to  have  set  the  seal  of  its  disapprobation : 
the  sympathetic  strike,  the  strike  against  the  employment 
of  non-union  men,  and  the  strike  to  compel  the  employer 
to  accept  the  union  regulations  regarding  apprenticeship 
and  other  details  of  his  business.  The  figures  show  that 
these  three  kinds  of  strikes  together  constitute  onlv  about 


186 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


TABLE  III 

Showing  the  Leading  Causes  op  Strikes  and  the  Results  of 
Strikes  Classified  by  Causes:  1881-1900 


Per  cent. 

Per  cent, 
of  establishments 

of  all 
strikes 

in  which  strikes 

Object  or  cause 

(by  estab- 

Suc- 
ceeded 
partly 

lish- 
ments) 

Suc- 
ceeded 

Failed 

For  increase  of  wages 

28.70 

52.77 

17.38 

29.85 

For  increase  of  wages  and  reduc- 

tion of  hours 

11.23 
11.16 

62.49 
49.43 

21.08 
8.66 

16.43 
41.91 

For  reduction  of  hours 

Against  reduction  of  wages  .  .  . 

7.17 

32.54 

13.14 

54.32 

In  sympathy   with  strike  else- 

where   

3.47 

25.03 

2.33 

72.64 

Against     employment   of    non- 

union men 

2.34 
2.33 

67.21 
35.34 

1.38 
30.09 

31.41 
34.57 

For  adoption  of  new  scale  .... 

For  recognition  of  union 

1.40 

12.37 

87.63 

For  increase   of   wages  and  re- 

cognition of  union 

.95 

13.41 

17.46 

69.13 

For  enforcement  of  union  rules. 

.91 

89.79 

10.21 

For  adoption  of  union  scale  .  .  . 

.79 

46.23 

'  '43 

63.34 

For    reduction     of     houj's    and 

against    being    compelled    to 

board  witli  employer 

.79 

32.47 

.      •      . 

67.53 

Against  task  system 

.78 

50.93 

49.07 

For    reduction     of    hours    and 

against  task  system 

.77 

100.00 

.  .  . 

For  adoption    union   rules  and 

imion  scale 

.75 

64.20 

5.23 

30.57 

For  reinstatement  of  discharged 

employees 

.74 

40.67 

1.96 

57.37 

For  increase  of  wages,  Saturday 

half  holiday,  and  privilege  of 

working    for    employers    not 

members     of    masters'    asso- 

ciation  

.68 

100.00 

.  .    . 

.  .  . 

Against  reduction  of  wages  and 

working  over  time 

.64 

100.00 

.  .  . 

against  use  of  material  from 

non-union  establishments  .  .  . 

.64 

•  .  . 

100.00 

For  increase  of  wages  and  Satur- 

day half  holiday 

.62 

77.64 

15.09 

7.27 

]  All  other  causes 

23.14 

.  .  . 

STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  18? 

8  per  cent,  of  all  strikes  and  that  the  sympathetic  strike 
is  conspicuously  unsuccessful. 

6.  Th  e  Legal  Aspect  of  Strikes :  In  the  opening  para- 
graphs of  this  chapter,  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  normal 
strike  involves  a  concerted  termination  of  employment, 
and  systematic  persuasion  with  the  object  of  keeping  the 
strikers'  places  from  being  filled,  and  that  in  addition, 
pressure  was  frequently  brought  to  bear  upon  the  em- 
ployer by  depriving  him  of  his  customers  or  of  the  raw 
materials  needed  in  his  business.  The  discussion  of  this 
subject  naturally  turns,  then,  upon  the  right  of  wage- 
earners  to  combine  (a)  to  quit  work,  (b)  to  picket,  and 
(c)  to  boycott.  Before  discussing  these  rights,  attention 
should  be  called  to  the  general  legal  doctrine  which  under- 
lies and  conditions  the  law  upon  all  these  subjects :  the 
doctrine  of  conspiracy. 

A  conspiracy  is  an  illegal  combination.  It  may  be  more 
practically  defined  as  a  combination  of  two  or  more  per- 
sons, hy  concerted  action,  to  accomplish  some  unlawful, 
oppressive  or  immoral  action,  or  to  accomplish  some  pur- 
pose, not  in  itself  unlawful,  oppressive  or  immoral,  hy 
unlawful,  oppressive  or  immoral  means.  It  is  evident 
that  adequately  to  discuss  and  expand  this  doctrine  would 
require  a  volume  in  itself,  but  the  reader  is  requested  to 
notice  particularly  the  following  consequences  and  inter- 
pretations of  the  doctrine,  (a)  It  has  been  interpreted 
very  broadly,  so  as  to  condemn  combinations  merely  to 
injure  public  trade,  to  violate  public  policy  or  to  pervert 
justice,     (b)  It  follows  that  many  actions  may  become 


188  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

unlawful  when  performed  by  a  combination  of  persons, 
which,  if  performed  by  an  individual,  would  lead  neither 
to  criminal  indictment  nor  to  civil  action,  (c)  The  com- 
bination may  be  punished  though  its  purpose  is  never 
achieved.  As  was  said  in  the  celebrated  case  of  Common- 
wealth V.  Judd  (2  Mass.  329),  "The  gist  of  a  conspiracy 
is  the  unlawful  confederacy  to  do  an  unlawful  act  *  *  * 
the  offence  is  complete  when  the  confederacy  is  made ;  and 
any  act  done  in  pursuance  of  it  is  no  constituent  part  of 
the  offence,  but  merely  an  aggravation  of  it."^  (d) 
Finally,  and  most  important,  a  combination  is  not  unlaw- 
ful merely  because  it  contemplates  or  necessarily  involves 
injury  to  some  one.  If  A  and  B  form  a  partnership  and 
in  the  normal  course  of  competitive  business  drive  a  rival 
C  into  bankruptcy,  C  has  no  legal  redress.  He  has  been 
injured  but  not  wronged ;  in  legal  parlance  it  is  damnum 
absque  injuria.  On  the  other  hand  if  A  and  B  combine 
to  bankrupt  C  designedly,  and  commit  acts  which,  while 
necessarily  injurious  to  C,  are  of  no  direct  benefit  to  them- 
selves, they  are  guilty  of  conspiracy,  and  may  be  duly 
punished. 

The  decisive  factor,  then,  is  the  presence  or  absence  of 
malicious  intent.  But  it  is  one  of  the  unfortunate  pecu- 
liarities of  the  strike  that  it  invariably  involves  injury  to 
someone— the  employer,  a  non-union  workman  or  a  third 
party.     The  consequence  is,  that  in  almost  every  strike 


'  This  part  of  the  doctrine  of  conspiracy  has  been  repealed  In  the 
Federal  law,  and  except  for  specially  heinous  crimes  like  arson,  bur- 
glary, etc.,  In  Minnesota,  South  Dakota.  Oklahoma,  Montana  and  New 
Jersey. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  189 

about  whose  legality  there  can  be  any  question  at  all,  the 
question  finally  sifts  down  to  the  legitimacy  of  the  object 
of  the  strike.  "Was  the  injury  involved  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  an  in.iocent  and  laudable  purpose?  Then 
the  strikers  cannot  be  charged  with  it.  Was  there  no  real 
purpose,  or  only  a  trivial  one,  beyond  the  intent  to  injure  ?  i 
Then  the  combination  becomes  a  conspiracy  and  the  con- 
spirators may  be  punished  criminally  and  mulcted  in 
damages.  From  these  conditions  we  reach  the  general 
rule  that  a  peaceable  strike  is  illegal  or  legal  according  as 
the  injury  it  entails  is  direct,  primary  and  intentional,  or 
secondary  and  incidental  to  the  accomplishment  of  some 
innocent  end. 

(a)  Combinations  to  Terminate  Employment:  At 
the  present  day,  a  combination  to  quit  work  is  legal  or 
illegal  according  as  the  further  object  of  the  combination 
is  good  or  bad.  This  has  not  always  been  the  law.  In 
England,  at  least,  during  the  life  of  the  combination  acts 
which  were  repealed  in  1824,  combinations  of  wage- 
earners  to  effect  even  the  most  innocent  and  laudable  ends 
were  under  the  ban  of  the  law ;  and  the  English  doctrine 
seems  to  have  been  followed  in  several  early  American 
cases,  notably  those  of  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Makers  of  Phila- 
delphia (1806),  the  Journeymen  Cordwainers  of  the 
City  of  New  York  (1810),  and  the  Pittsburg  Cordwainers 
(1815).  In  the  first  named  case  the  court  endorsed  the 
English  doctrine  in  its  baldest  form :  ''A  combination  of 
workmen  to  raise  their  wages, ' '  said  Recorder  Levy  in  his 
charge  to  the  jury, ' '  may  be  considered  in  a  twofold  point 


190  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

of  view ;  one  is  to  benefit  themselves,  the  other  is  to  injure 
those  who  do  not  join  their  society.  The  mle  of  law  con- 
demns hotli."'^  The  jury  found  the  strikers  "guilty  of  a 
combination  to  raise  their  wages,"  and  they  were  fined 
$8  each  together  with  the  costs  of  the  suit. 

The  American  courts  soon  righted  themselves,  however, 
and  in  a  series  of  cases,  the  most  celebrated  of  which  per- 
haps is  Commonwealth  i'.  Hunt  (4  Metcalf,  111),  and  the 
most  decisive  that  of  Master  Stevedores'  Association  v. 
Walsh  (2  Daly,  1),  fully  established  the  right  of  wage- 
earners  to  quit  work  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the 
conditions  of  their  employment.  And  this  may  now  be 
accepted  as  the  general  rule.  On  the  other  hand,  it  can- 
not be  emphasized  too  strongly  that  no  such  thing  as  a 
general  right  to  quit  work  has  been  established.  Every- 
thing depends  upon  the  object  for  which  the  employees 
quit  work.  If  the  object  be  to  increase  wages,  reduce 
hours,  prevent  the  practice  of  working  over  time,  or  any 
other  end  which  the  court  regards  as  legitimate,  the  com- 
bination is  legal.  This  legality  will  be  asserted  even  in 
such  cases  as  strikes  on  a  railroad  in  the  hands  of  a 
receiver,  where  actions  calculated  to  embarrass  this  officer 
of  the  court  are  judged  with  great  severity,  and  are  likely 
to  be  punished  as  contempt  of  court.  Pei^  contra,  if  the 
principal  object  be  to  harass  or  embarrass  the  receiver, 
even  though  the  strikers  hopie  in  some  vague  and  indefi- 
nite way  ultimately  to  profit  by  their  action,  the  combina- 


'  For  the  above  cases  and  opinions  quoted  see  t^ixtrrnth  Annual  Re 
port  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  ch.  V. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  191 

tion  will  be  illegal.  Among  the  other  objects  which  will 
taint  a  combination  to  quit  work  and  render  the  partici- 
pants liable  to  criminal  indictment  or  civil  action  are: 
hindrance  and  delay  of  the  United  States  mail,  persuasion 
of  others  to  obstruct  the  mails  or  interstate  commerce 
generally,  inducement  or  coercion  of  one  person  to  boycott 
another,  the  coercion  of  the  public  generally  to  adopt 
certain  measures,  and  probably  the  violation  of  labor  con- 
tracts. It  need  hardly  be  said  that  in  most  of  these  cases 
the  combiners  hope  to  benefit  themselves  ultimately.  But 
if,  in  the  chain  of  intermediate  means  there  is  an  illegal 
act  such  as  intimidation  of  a  ''scab,"  or  if  the  ultimate 
benefit  is  remote,  trivial  or  indefinite,  while  the  injury  is 
the  immediate  object  sought,  the  combination  becomes 
illegal. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  ascertain  whether  the  intent  is 
malicious  or  not,  and  in  deciding  difficult  cases  much 
stress  is  laid  upon  "insufficient  interest."  Speaking 
generally,  people  must  have  a  plain  and  important  interest 
at  stake,  or  they  will  not  be  permitted  to  interrupt  with 
impunity  the  business  of  the  employer  and  the  traffic  of 
the  public.  The  legality  of  three  important  kinds  of 
strikes  is  usually  determined  by  this  test  of  sufficient 
interest,  (a)  The  sympathetic  strike  is  practically 
always  illegal,  the  courts  holding  that  the  workmen  in 
one  establishment  have  no  such  interest  in  the  success  of 
the  strike  in  another  establishment,  as  to  warrant  them  in 
involving  their  own  employer  and  the  public  in  the  losses 
and  discomforts  of  a  new  strike,     (b)  Strikes  to  secure 


192  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  discharge  or  prevent  the  employment  of  non-umion 
workmen;  and  (c)  the  interference  of  outside  parties, 
usually  trade  union  officials,  in  instigating  and  directing 
strikes  in  establishments  in  which  they  are  not  employed, 
have  also  in  the  past  usually  been  declared  illegal.  The 
reasoning  of  the  courts  in  these  cases  seems  to  be  that  the 
strikers  or  the  trade  union  officials  have  so  little  to  gain 
by  the  success  of  the  strike  that  their  actions  in  inflicting 
the  injuries  consequent  upon  the  strike  must  be  construed 
as  predominantly  malicious.  In  all  these  classes  of  cases  a 
large  majority  of  the  decisions  are  adverse,  but  there  are 
several  strong  decisions  in  the  opposite  direction,  par- 
ticularly in  New  Jersey  and  New  York.^ 

The  difficult  case  of  the  strike  against  the  employment 
of  non-union  men  is  discussed  at  length  on  page  205.  At 
this  point  the  writer  can  only  record  his  strong  dissent 
from  the  doctrine  that  when  a  walking  delegate  or  a  union 
organizer  goes  into  a  factory  or  mine,  and  persuades  the 
employees  to  strike,  he  is  necessarily  without  real  interest, 
and  guilty  of  malicious  interference.  Doubtless  there  are 
cases  in  which  the  object  of  the  walking  delegate  is  simple 
blackmail.     But  in  the  great  majority  of  instances  his 

^  See  particularly  Judge  Parker's  decision  in  National  Protective  As- 
sociation r.  Cumming,  63  N.  E.  Rep.,  369.  In  this  case  It  was  held  that 
the  members  of  one  trade  union  may  strilce  to  secure  the  discharge  of 
members  of  another  union:  but  subsequent  decisions  of  the  Appellate 
Division  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Yorli  have  made  it  plain  that  tho 
old  doctrine  that  strikes  to  secure  the  discharge  of  non-union  men  are 
Illegal,  is  to  be  maintained.  (See  the  decision  in  Beattie  v.  Callanan, 
discussed  in  the  A'e-ic  York  RulUiin  of  Labor,  June,  1903,  pp.  176,  177.) 
In  the  recent  Pennsylvania  case  of  Erdman  v.  Mitchell,  the  doctrln« 
that  the  members  of  one  union  have  a  right  to  strike  in  order  to  secure 
the  discharge  of  members  of  another  union,  was  flatly  denied.  (Bulle' 
tin  of  the  ((.'.  S.)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No,  51.  pp.  450-454. > 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  I93 

fvork  is  perfectly  legitimate.  If  he  be  an  officer  of  the 
union  to  which  these  employees  belong,  he  is  merely  doing 
what  he  is  elected  or  appointed  to  do,  namely,  watch  out 
to  discover  when  they  can  better  their  conditions  and 
direct  them  in  the  method  of  betterment.  He  is  no  more 
guilty  of  malicious  interference  than  is  the  counsel  of  a 
great  company  when  he  advises  the  directorate  to  reduce 
expenses  by  introducing  labor-saving  machinery  or  a 
cheaper  grade  of  labor.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  be  an 
organizer,  engaged  in  persuading  non-union  employees 
to  enter  the  union  and  demand  union  terms,  he  has  an 
even  more  vital  interest  at  stake.  Just  as  a  government 
cannot  long  endure  half  slave  and  half  free,  so  there  can- 
not permanently  exist  in  the  same  place  and  occupation  a 
higher  and  a  lower  rate  of  wages  for  the  same  work ;  and 
the  trade  union  which  has  secured  the  higher  rate,  must 
induce  the  non-union  competitors  to  demand  the  same 
terms,  or  itself  be  forced  back  to  the  lower  level.  The 
union  official  who  persuades  non-union  men  to  demand 
union  terms,  is,  in  his  own  belief,  inducing  them  not  only 
to  better  their  own  condition,  but  to  cease  injuring  the 
trade  unionists  w^hom  he  represents.  In  the  last  analysis 
the  decision  of  the  court  in  these  delicate  questions  of 
intent  and  interest  will  be  decided  by  the  political  econ- 
omy of  the  court.  If  the  judge  believes  that  the  working 
man  cannot  substantially  improve  his  condition  without 
making  positive  efforts  to  improve  it,  that  "if  the  wage- 
earner  does  not  pursue  his  interest,  he  loses  his  interest," 
then  he  should  acquiesce  in  the  methods  of  combination 


194  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

and  union  which  up  to  the  present  time  have  been  the 
most  efficient  instruments  which  the  laboring  classes  have 
devised  to  improve  their  condition. 

(a)  Statute  Law  on  Strikes:  Up  to  this  point  we  have 
been  speaking  as  if  there  were  no  statute  law  on  strikes, 
but  this  is  not  strictly  true;  about  fifteen  states  havo 
statutes  modifying  the  old  law  of  conspiracy,  specifically 
conferring  on  the  laborer  the  right  to  combine  to  raise 
wages,  or  to  induce  by  peaceable  means,  any  person  to 
accept  or  quit  any  employment.  The  Pennsylvania 
statute  authorizing  workmen,  inter  alia,  to  combine  tc 
quit  work  whenever  the  continued  labor  by  them  w^uld  be 
contrary  to  the  rules  of  their  union ;  the  New  Jersey, 
Texas,  and  Colorado  statutes  permitting  combinations  for 
the  purpose  of  persuading  others  to  strike  or  quit  work ; 
and  the  Maryland  and  California  statutes  declaring  that 
no  combination  to  do  any  act  in  furtherance  of  a  trade 
dispute  shall  be  indicted  as  a  conspiracy,  if  such  act  com- 
mitted by  one  person  would  not  be  punishable  as  an 
offence,  have  all  wrought  important  modifications  of  the 
law,  and  might  profitably  be  endorsed  by  the  laboring 
classes  in  other  states.  But  with  these  exceptions  the 
statutes  do  not  appear  substantially  to  have  altered  the 
'common  law,  particularly  as  regards  the  civil  liability  of 
strikers. 

Three  federal  statutes,  however,  are  of  great  importance  i 
section  3,995  of  the  Revised  Statutes  which  penalizes  th<? 
knowing  and  wilful  obstruction  of  the  passage  of  the 
xnails;  the  tenth  section  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  195 

which  makes  it  a  misdemeanor  to  interfere  with  interstate 
transportation ;  and  the  first  section  of  the  Anti-Trust 
Act  of  1890  which  declares  illegal  every  combination  in 
restraint  of  trade  or  commerce  among  the  several  states 
or  with  foreign  nations. 

No  one  can  state  at  the  present  time  the  exact  effect  of 
these  statutes  upon  the  legality  of  labor  combinations. 
In  a  number  of  exceedingly  important  cases  the  courts 
have  spoken  as  if  any  combination  of  wage-earners  which 
contemplates  or  necessarily  involves  obstruction  of  the 
mails,  interference  with  transportation  between  the  states 
or  restraint  of  interstate  commerce,  is  ipso  facto  illegal. 
Yet  in  what  is  probably  the  most  important  Federal  case 
on  this  particular  topic,  a  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals 
decided  that  employees  can  not  be  prevented  from  quit- 
ting work  or  from  advising  others  to  quit,  even  though 
their  action  restrains  comm:rce  and  interferes  with  trans- 
portation between  the  Siaics.^  As  a  consequence  we  are 
in  a  condition  of  very  demoralizing  uncertainty. 

(&)  Picketing:  The  second  fundamental  question 
involved  in  the  strike  concerns  the  right  of  strikers  to 
persuade  other  workmen  not  to  accept  employment  with 
the  employer  involved.  This  is  usually  accomplished  by 
pickets  or  patrols  who  are  stationed  about  the  works  of  the 
employer  in  order  to  intercept  "strike  breakers"  and  per- 
suade them  not  to  take  the  places  vacated  by  the  strikers. 

The  law  upon  picketing  can  be  stated  in  a  few  words. 
The  theoretical  right  of  strikers  peaceably  to  persuade 

1  Arthur  v.  Oakes,  63  Fed.  Rep.,  p.  310. 


196  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

competing  workmen  not  to  take  their  places,  has  been  fully 
established.  Nevertheless  the  American  cases  in  which 
actual  picketing  has  been  sanctioned  or  permitted  can  be 
numbered,  so  to  speak,  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  The 
explanation  of  this  apparent  anomaly  is  not  far  to  seek. 
It  seems  to  be  generally  admitted  that  strikers  have  such  a 
supreme  interest  in  preventing  the  filling  of  their  places, 
that  they  are  justified  in  peaceably  persuading  others  not 
to  "scab,"  even  though  such  persuasion  contains  a  very 
plain  element  of  boycott.  On  the  other  hand  this  per- 
suasion must  not  contain  the  slightest  element  of  intimida- 
tion or  interference,  because  the  moment  it  does  so  it 
becomes  an  action  forcibly  to  prevent  a  workman  from 
getting  or  keeping  a  "job."  Now  it  so  happens  that  the 
strike-breaker  or  "blackleg"  is  seldom  willing  to  discuss 
the  proprieties  of  his  action  with  the  strikers,  or  entertain 
towards  them  any  other  feelings  than  those  of  the  liveliest 
fear  and  apprehension.  To  persuade  him  you  must 
detain  him  against  his  will,  and  to  detain  him  by  force 
constitutes  coercion  or  intimidation.  And  this  goes  far  to 
explain  why  almost  every  decision  on  the  subject  affirms 
the  abstract  right  and  condemns  the  actual  practice  of 
picketing. 

(c)  Boycotting:  When  picketing  and  the  concerted 
cessation  of  employment  fail  to  win  a  strike,  resort  is  often 
had  to  the  boycott.  The  boycott,  as  used  in  modern  labor 
disputes,  may  he  defined  as  a  combination  to  suspend 
dealings  with  another  party,  and  to  persuade  or  coerce 
others  to  suspend  dealings,  in  order  to  force  this  party  to 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  197 

comphj  icifJi  some  demand,  or  to  punish  him  for  non- 
compliance in  the  past.  At  the  present  time  four  distinct 
varieties  of  boycott  may  be  distinguished:  (1)  The  pri- 
mary boycott ;  a  simple  combination  of  persons  to  suspend 
dealings  with  a  party  obnoxious  to  them,  involving  no 
attempt  to  coerce  third  persons  to  suspend  dealings  also. 
(2)  The  compound  boycott,  in  which  such  an  effort  to 
coerce  third  parties  to  participate  is  made.  This  is  the 
ordinary  form  of  the  boycott.  (3)  The  fair  list  or  union 
label,  placed,  respectively,  in  establishments  manned  or 
upon  goods  manufactured  by  union  labor  solely  and 
designed  to  confine  the  patronage  of  trade  unionists  to 
employers  who  accept  the  union  scale  and  conditions  of 
labor.  This  is  oftevi  spoken  of  as  the  legal  or  negative 
boycott.  (4)  The  unfair  list,  published  in  most  trade 
union  journals  and  containing  the  names  of  firms  and 
employers  who  have  offended  the  unions,  and  with  whom 
trade  unionists  are  exhorted  to  have  no  business  dealings, 
either  of  purchase  or  of  sale,  direct  or  indirect.  Employ- 
ers branded  *'unfait"  by  one  labor  organization  are  fre- 
quently placed  on  the  unfair  lists  of  other  organizations 
"by  courtesy,"  and  when  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  thus  endorses  the  boycott  of  an  affiliated  union,  the 
excommunication  is  transmitted  to  a  membership  approxi- 
mating two  millions. 

So  much  for  the  facts  about  the  boycott.  With  respect 
to  the  law,  it  may  be  briefly  said  that  the  legality  of  the 
union  label  has  been  firmly  and  finally  established ;  that 
nothing  authoritative  can  be  said  about  the  legality  of  the 


198  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

unfair  list^  as  it  has  been  brought  before  a  court  for  the 
first  time,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  in  a  case  which  is 
still  pending;  that  the  legality  of  the  primary  boycott, 
which  seldom  occurs,  is  doubtful ;  while  the  compound 
boycott  is  almost  always  and  everywhere  illegal.  In  Illi- 
nois, Alabama  and  Colorado  there  are  statutes  prohibiting 
the  boycott,  eo  nomine,  and  in  Maryland,  Montana  and 
California,  laws  apparently  legalizing  peaceable  boycotts 
exist,  while  about  twenty-five  other  states  have  statutes 
against  interference  and  intimidation  which  do  little 
more  than  declare  the  common  law. 

The  essence  of  the  boycott  is  the  intent  to  injure.  This 
injury  may  be  infiicted  for  mere  revenge,  or  it  may  be 
inflicted  with  the  ultimate  purpose  of  accomplishing  the 
most  laudable  and  desirable  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tions of  employment.  But  in  either  case,  say  the  courts, 
the  primary  object  is  injury,  the  intent  consequently 
malicious,  and  the  combination  in  turn  illegal.  A  variety 
of  other  reasons  are  advanced  by  the  courts  for  declaring 
the  boycott  illegal.  Many  of  them  seem  to  the  writer 
superfluous,  illogical,  and  in  plain  conflict  with  the  more 
liberal  laws  on  strikes.^     But  the  doctrine  of  malicious 


i  The  unfair  list,  picltetlng,  the  blaclslist  and  all  forms  of  the  boy- 
cott have  been  made  illegal  in  Alabama  by  a  recent  law.  (Acts  of  1903, 
No.  329.) 

a  For  example,  the  doctrine  that  it  Is  unlawful  to  interfere  with  any 
one  in  the  lawful  conduct  of  his  business,  a  doctrine  enacted  into  posi- 
tive law  in  New  Hampshire  (I'nb.  Stat.,  266,  12).  and  other  states. 
Every  act  of  a  business  firm  which  injures  a  competitor,  and  certainly 
every  strllce,  interferes  with  some  one  in  the  lawful  conduct  of  his 
business.  This  doctrine  was  most  severely  arraigned  by  Chief  Justice 
Parker  in  the  case  of  National  Pro*-'^tive  Association  v.  Cummlng  (63 
N.  E.  Rep.,  369).  


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  199 

intent  is  open  to  none  of  these  objections  and  may  stand 
alone  as  a  sufficient  explanation  of  the  illegality  of  boy- 
cotts. The  Avriter  wishes  to  express  no  opinion  about  the 
real  wisdom  or  fundamental  justice  of  this  doctrine. 
Absolute  justice  may  indeed  decree  that  certain  forms  of 
the  combination  to  injure  should  be  tolerated  or  even 
encouraged.  But  this  at  present  is  not,  in  most  of  the 
United  States  at  least,  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  simple  dictum  that  the  ordinary  boycott  is  now 
illegal  must  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  following 
modifications:  (a)  Many  of  the  most  eminent  legal 
authorities  affirm  that  the  primary  boycott  is  perfectly 
legal.  Such  boycotts  rarely,  if  ever,  occur.  Neverthe- 
less, in  the  cases  nearest  approximating  primary  boycotts, 
the  combinations  have  been  deemed  illegal  enough  to 
justify  injunctions.^  (b)  But  the  legality  of  trade  boy- 
cotts—boycotts by  one  group  of  employers  directed 
against  another  employer  or  group  of  employers — has 
been  affirmed  in  several  important  cases  though  denied  in 
others,  (c)  In  a  few  recent  eases  the  legality  of  rom- 
pound  boycotts  has  been  fully  sustained,  and  these  cases 
may  represent  the  latest  trend  of  legal  doctrine.  The 
controversy  cannot  be  thrashed  out  here,  but  the  reader  is 
advised  to  read  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Mis- 
souri in  the  case  of  Marx  and  Hass  Jeans  Clothing  Co. 
V.  Watson  et  al.- 

^  See  Barr  v.  Essex  Trades  Council,  30  Atl.  Rep.,  S81  ;  and  Hopkins  v. 
Oxley  Stave  Co.,  83  Fed.  Rep.,  912. 

*67  S.  W.  Rep.,  391.  The  essentia!  points  of  this  decision  may  be 
found  conveniently  in  Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  No.  44.  pp- 
157-159. 


200  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

7.  The  BlacUist :  The  evil  possibilities  of  the  boycott 
appear  most  plainly  when  we  consider  the  boycott  some- 
times maintained  by  employers  against  the  employment  of 
workmen  who  have  made  themselves  obnoxious  by  activity 
in  strikes  or  in  the  organization  of  new  unions.  This 
form  of  boycotting  is  usually  called  "blacklisting,"  and 
the  attitude  of  workingmen  towards  it  is  well  expressed 
by  the  statement  of  the  Industrial  Commission  that  "wit- 
nesses representing  labor  without  exception  denounce  the 
blacklist  as  unjust."  The  Industrial  Commission,  or  at 
least  the  writer  of  the  admirable  chapter  on  "Labor"  in 
the  Final  Report,  maintains  that  the  ordinary  effect  of  the 
blacklist  is  immensely  "more  injurious  to  the  men  con- 
cerned than  a  boycott,  which  is  the  counter  weapon  to  the 
blacklist,  could  be  to  an  employer."  But  notwithstand- 
ing this  statement  the  two  things  are  in  principle  iden- 
tical and  should  be  treated  alike. 

About  twenty-seven  states  at  the  present  writing 
(1904)  have  laws  which  either  prohibit,  or  might  be  con- 
strued to  prohibit,  blacklisting,  but  these  laws  are  difficult 
to  enforce  because  of  the  secrecy  with  which  a  few  power- 
ful employers  may  combine  against  an  obnoxious  work- 
man. Where  such  laws  impose  positive  duties  upon  the 
employer  and  attempt  to  compel  him  to  furnish  a  written 
statement  of  the  cause  of  discharge,  they  are  probably 
unconstitutional ;  but  most  of  these  laws  simply  prohibit 
the  circulation  of  blacklists,  or  wilful  attempts  and  com- 
binations to  prevent  persons  from  obtaining  employment, 
and  in  this  form  they  are  wholly  in  keeping  with  the 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  201 

general  doctrine  laid  down  by  the  majority  of  courts  on 
strikes  and  boycotts.  But  there  are  a  few  decisions  of  an 
opposite  tenor,  and  a  Missouri  court  has  recently  refused 
to  issue  an  injunction  against  the  maintenance  of  a  black- 
list by  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company.^ 

Very  recently  some  of  the  more  radical  employers' 
associations  have  devised  what  may  be  called  a  negative 
blacklist.  Members  of  the  association  send  to  the  local 
headquarters  a  description  of  each  workman  in  their 
employ,  and  when  a  man  is  discharged,  a  statement  of  the 
reason  is  forwarded  to  the  secretary  who  enters  this  and 
all  other  items  of  relevant  information  which  he  may 
secure,  upon  the  proper  card.  In  this  way  a  history  and 
description  of  every  workman  in  the  locality  is  compiled 
for  the  particular  industry  in  question.  Other  members 
of  the  association  who  desire  to  put  on  extra  hands  send 
to  the  headquarters  for  a  list  of  eligibles,  or  get  a  state- 
ment of  the  history  and  character  of  any  applicant  for 
work  who  has  ever  been  employed  in  the  same  town ;  and 
the  association  is  thus  enabled  to  weed  out  troublesome 
workmen  by  simply  refusing  to  recommend  them,  or  by 
merely  stating  what  is  known  of  their  past  careers. 
While  it  is  evident  that  such  a  system  may  be  abused,  it 
would  seem  to  be  perfectly  legal  and  beyond  the  reach  of 
statute  law.  In  principle  it  is  essentially  similar  to  the 
union  label. 

Just  how  extensively  this  negative  blacklist,  or  * '  white- 
list"  as  it  has  been  called,  has  come  into  use,  is  not  known. 

1  See  Bulletin  of  the  (U.  S.)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  50,  p.  202. 


202  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

But  it  is  ''generally  believed,"  as  the  Industrial  Com- 
mission expresses  it,  "that  the  more  formal  and  direct 
methods  of  blacklisting  have  largely  disappeared. ' ' 

8.  Criticism  of  the  Law:  It  seems  utterly  impossible 
to  lay  down  simple  general  rules  for  deciding  what  does 
and  does  not  constitute  malice.  As  Lord  MacNaughten 
said  with  blunt  honesty  in  the  famous  case  of  Allen  v. 
Flood : ' '  Sometimes  I  rather  doubt  whether  I  quite  under- 
stand that  unhappy  expression  [maliciously]  myself." 
The  result  is  that  our  court  decisions  are  almost  hope- 
lessly conflicting,  the  status  of  the  law  vague,  and  labor 
organizations  blamelessly  ignorant  of  what  they  can  and 
can  not  lawfully  do  in  labor  disputes.  ' '  The  law  on  this 
whole  subject,"  said  Vice-Chancellor  Stephenson  in  a 
recent  case,  "  is  to  a  large  extent  unsettled,  and  involved 
in  dispute  and  difference  of  opinion  among  judges  and 
text-writers. '  '^ 

That  this  reproach  of  uncertainty  may  justly  be  aimed 
at  the  existing  law,  no  one  denies.  But  two  further 
criticisms,  not  so  plainly  justifiable,  are  also  based  upon 
the  necessity,  inherent  in  the  existing  law,  of  making  the 
difficult  diagnosis  of  intent.  Whether  the  intent  be 
malicious  or  not,  say  the  first  group  of  critics,  is  or  should 
be  entirely  immaterial :  acts  are  either  actionable  or  per- 


1  Atkins  et  al.  v.  Fletcher  Co.  et  al.,  55  Atl.  Rep..  1074.  In  this  case 
a  labor  organization  tried  to  secure  an  Injunction  preventing  the  agents 
of  an  eTipIoyers'  association  from  interfering  by  intimidation,  threats 
or  violence  with  a  system  of  peaceable  and  lawful  picketing  which  the 
labor  organization  was  maintaining.  The  reader  is  strongly  advised  to 
read  this  most  interesting  decision  which  may  be  found  in  Bulletin  of 
■*.ln,  (U.  S.)  Bureau  of  Labor,  for  March,  1904,  pp.  457-460. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  203 

missible,  unlawful  or  lawful ;  there  is  no  middle  ground, 
and  no  act  should  be  interpreted  as  unlawful  merely 
because  it  is  performed  with  malice.  The  second  group 
of  critics  acquiesce,  however,  in  the  necessity  of  inter- 
preting the  intent,  but  complain  that  the  courts,  owing 
to  the  training,  social  affiliations  and  unconscious  pre- 
dilections of  our  judges,  are  prone  to  find  malice  where 
there  is  no  malice,  and  frequently  fail  to  see  the  direct 
and  legitimate  interest  of  combining  workmen  when  they 
have  such  an  interest.^ 

On  the  surface  everything  seems  to  favor  the  elimina- 
tion of  the  consideration  of  motive,  the  elusive,  evanescent 
will-o-the-wisp  that  has  brought  our  law  into  such  con- 
fusion. Further  consideration,  however,  forces  the  writer 
to  conclude,  not  only  that  such  elimination  is  impossible, 
but  that  with  the  increasing  complexity  of  industrial 
relations  and  the  growing  power  of  one  social  group  to 
injure  both  society  generally  and  competing  groups  in 
particular,  the  law  will  become  increasingly  dependent 
upon  the  interpretation  of  motive.  The  necessary  con- 
sequences of  the  elimination  of  the  consideration  of  intent 
condemn  the  proposition  altogether.  It  would  legalize  at 
once  the  sympathetic  strike,  the  compound  boycott  and  the 
blacklist.  With  one  and  the  same  edict  we  should  author- 
ize Mr.  Gompers  to  turn  his  two  million  workmen  to  the 

*  The  reader  will  find  able  pre.sentation  of  the  first  line  of  criticism 
In  the  oft-quoted  paper  by  President  Gompers,  published  in  Senate  Docu- 
ment No.  190,  57th  Congress,  1st  Session  ;  and  in  The  Law  of  Trade  and 
Labor  Combinations  by  F.  H.  Cooke.  An  admirable  exposition  of  the 
second  kind  of  criticism  may  be  found  in  the  ffitrndurtion  to  the  190S 
Jsdition  »f  Industrial  Democracy  by  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb. 


204  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

destruction  of  any  firm  which  refused  to  participate  in 
his  boycotts,  and  encourage  Mr.  Parry  to  suppress  by  a 
gigantic  blacklist  among  the  3,500  large  firms  of  the 
National  Association  of  Manufacturers,  every  labor  leader 
who  offended  him.  Nearly  two  hundred  years  ago  (in 
1706)  one  Hickeringill  amused  himself  by  firing  a  gun  on 
his  own  property  to  keep  ducks  away  from  the  decoy  pond 
of  his  neighbor  Keeble.  The  court  held,^  and  held  rightly, 
that  though  Hickeringill  had  a  lawful  right  to  fire  a  gun 
on  his  own  property  in  order  to  kill  ducks  for  his  own  use 
or  for  any  other  purpose  for  which  guns  are  ordinarily 
fired,  he  had  no  right  to  fire  the  gun  merely  and  mali- 
ciously to  deprive  Keeble  of  possible  ducks.  No  one  can 
doubt  the  common  justice  of  the  decision.  And  as  the 
social  structure  gets  more  complex,  neighbors  nearer, 
guns  louder,  and  ducks  rarer,  the  importance  of  the  motive 
will  grow,  and  the  necessity  for  judging  it  become  more 
imperative.  Reform  will  come  through  emphasizing,  not 
ignoring,  the  importance  of  the  motive. 

But  all  this  presumes  on  the  part  of  our  courts  greater 
knowledge  of  trade  unions,  wages  and  the  history  of  labor 
than  they  have  heretofore  shown.  In  other  words,  the 
writer  believes  that  there  is  some  justice  in  the  criticism 
which  charges  our  courts  with  discovering  malice  where 
there  is  no  malice,  and  failing  to  discover  a  legitimate 
interest  where  there  is  one.  Take  the  extreme  ease  of  a 
strike  to  secure  the  discharge  of  a  ' '  scab, ' '  which  is  usually 
condemned  on  the  ground  that  the  primary  object  is  to 

^Hickeringill  v.  Keeble,  11  East.,  574. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  205 

injure  the  non-union  man.  On  the  contrary  this  is 
usually  a  secondary  and  incidental  motive.  The  real 
object  is  to  prevent  a  breach  of  those  common  rules  Upon 
which  the  maintenance  of  trade  unionism  depends.  In 
the  last  six  centuries  the  laboring  population  has  risen 
from  a  condition  of  serfdom  to  a  state  of  political  freedom. 
In  this  struggle  for  economic  equality,  the  victories  have 
been  won  by  the  wage-earners  themselves.  When  they 
did  not  pursue  their  interest  they  lost  their  interest. 
When  they  forgot  to  demand  their  full  reward,  they  failed 
to  receive  their  full  reward.  They  had  occasional  encour- 
agement and  even  an  occasional  leader  from  the  employ- 
ing classes,  but  in  the  main  they  fought  their  way  against 
the  opposition  and  not  with  the  assistance  of  their 
employers.  Their  weapons  were  the  strike  and  the  trade 
union.  When  the  ponderous  machinery  of  supply  and 
demand  was  ready  to  give  them  a  lift,  its  inertia  and 
initial  friction  had  to  be  overcome  with  a  strike.  When 
it  had  begun  to  thrust  wages  down,  it  was  prevented  from 
entirely  degrading  the  wage-earner  by  the  trade  union. 
Always  and  everywhere  the  salvation  of  the-  working 
classes  has  been  collective  action ;  and  while  the  wage  sys- 
tem remains,  their  progress  will  continue  to  be  dependent 
upon  collective  action.  Every  man  outside  of  the  com- 
bination weakens  the  combination.  Nine  out  of  ten  non- 
unionists  who  receive  as  much  as  the  union  rate,  may 
justly  be  regarded  as  parasites  upon  the  world  of  organ- 
ized labor,  reaping  where  they  have  not  sown,  sharing  the 
rewards  but  not  the  burdens  of  combination.     And  everv 


206  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

non-unionist  wlio  accepts  less  than  the  union  rate  makes 
the  latter  more  difficult  to  maintain ;  for  so  far  as  we  can 
determine  it  is  not  the  strongest,  nor  the  average,  but  the 
weakest  and  neediest  laborer  who  exercises  the  most 
influence  in  determining  the  rate  of  wages.  If  these 
things  are  true,  who  can  deny  the  immediate  interest  of 
trade  unionists  in  preventing  the  employment  of  competi- 
tors who  refuse  to  enter  the  union,  and  who  insist  upon 
exercising  their  right  of  inflicting  damum  absque  injuria 
by  lowering  the  rate  of  wages  in  general  ? 

9.  Strikes  and  the  Pnhlic  Welfare:  In  concluding 
this  discussion,  it  is  desirable  to  adduce  certain  additional 
evidence  of  a  miscellaneous  character,  which  will  assist  the 
reader  in  forming  an  opinion  concerning  the  proper  atti- 
tude of  the  disinterested  citizen  towards  the  strike  and 
boycott : 

(a)  Does  the  strike  pay  the  workingman?  The 
answer  of  the  ablest  and  most  conservative  labor  leaders 
is  that  it  does,  and  they  may  be  supposed  to  know  their 
business.  The  strike,  they  point  out,  often  drags  both 
employers  and  employees  from  a  dangerous  rut  and 
facilitates  the  adoption  of  more  efficient  methods  of  work 
and  production.  Again,  the  morale  of  organized  labor, 
the  feeling  of  solidarity,  is  immeasurably  stimulated,  they 
believe,  by  the  common  conflict  and  the  common  sacrifices 
demanded  in  this  conflict.  "  It  is  difficult  to  overestimate 
the  gain  from  a  righteous  labor  uprising,"  says  John 
Mitchell,  "and  there  are  few  moral  forces  more  uplifting 
than  the  strike  spirit  that  cements  a  vast  army  of  crude 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  207 

men.  "^  More  particularly  they  insist  that  strikes,  recur- 
rent strikes,  are  necessary  to  impress  the  employer  with 
the  power  of  organized  labor,  and  prepare  him  for  peace- 
able collective  bargaining.  In  the  section  on  statistics  it 
was  pointed  out  that  52  per  cent,  of  the  strikers  gain  all 
or  some  part  of  their  demands.  The  defendants  of  the 
strike  go  farther  and  assert  that  both  the  losses  and  the 
relative  frequency  of  strikes  are  greatly  exaggerated. 
Thus  we  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  deleterious  effect  of 
strikes  upon  British  industry.  But  in  Great  Britain,  in 
1902,  while  formal  changes  in  the  rates  of  wages  were 
made  affecting  890,356  persons,  these  changes  were  pre- 
ceded by  a  strike  in  the  cases  of  only  12,799  persons,  less 
than  li/o  per  cent.  Moreover,  labor  leaders  and  many  dis- 
interested students  assert  that  the  time  lost  by  strikers  is 
exaggerated.  Strikes,  particularly  in  mining  where  the 
normal  percentage  of  unemployment  is  very  high,  merely 
occupy  time  that  would  otherwise  be  spent  in  enforced 
vacations.  In  the  Final  Report  of  the  Industrial  Com- 
mission (page  864)  it  is  pointed  out  that  although  on  the 
average  of  the  twenty  years  1881-1900,  about  330,000  per- 
sons were  thrown  out  of  employment  annually  by  strikes 
and  lockouts,  this  number  constituted  only  about  3.36  per 
cent,  of  the  persons  employed  in  industries  affected  by 
strikes.  The  actual  time  lost  by  strikers  in  this  period 
amounted  to  about  194,000,000  days.  However,  "spread 
over  the  whole  period,  this  loss  amounts  to  very  much  less 
than  one  day  per  year  for  each  adult  worker.     In  other 

^  Organized  Labor,  p.  313. 


208  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

words,  the  workmen  of  the  United  States  have  lost  less 
time  from  strikes  and  lockouts  than  from  the  celebration 
of  the  Fourth  of  July  or  any  other  legal  holiday  *  *  *  _ " 
Similarlj^,  on  the  basis  of  the  figures  of  the  Department  of 
Labor,  Mr.  Mitchell  calculates  that  the  immediate  loss 
traceable  to  strikes  amounts  to  only  about  3  cents  per 
month  for  each  inhabitant.^ 

(6)  But  however  profitable  the  strike  may  be  for  the 
workmen,  it  is  destructive  enough  for  the  rest  of  society, 
and  no  manipulation  of  statistics  can  argue  out  of  exist- 
ence the  ills  which  follow  in  its  train— the  violence,  the 
class  antipathy,  the  bellicose  employers'  associations,  the 
interruption  of  industry  at  critical  moments,  and  the 
destruction  of  that  stability  and  confidence  upon  which 
the  delicate  system  of  modern  industry  rests.  The  most 
fundamental  question  is,  therefore,  how  to  get  rid  of  the 
strike.  This  question  will  be  discussed  in  Chapter  VIII. 
At  this  point,  however,  a  word  should  be  said  in  common 
fairness  about  the  responsibility  for  strikes. 

When  we  reflect  upon  the  enormous  evils  of  the  strike, 
we  almost  invariably  lay  them  at  the  door  of  the  working- 
man,  and  turn  to  the  trade  union  or  the  labor  leader  for  a 
defence  and  justification.  But  is  this  logical?  Just  as 
it  takes  two  to  make  a  quarrel,  so  it  takes  two  sides  to  make 
a  strike  :  the  wage-earner,  it  is  true,  can  prevent  the  strike 
by  accepting  the  terms  of  the  employer,  but  so  also  may  the 
employer  prevent  the  strike  by  acquiescing  in  the  terras 


'  Organized  Labor,  pp.  309,  310.    For  obvious  reasons  no  great  reliance 
can  be  placed  upon  statistics  of  the  money  loss  occasioned  bv  strikes. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  209 

of  the  wage-earner.  AYhere  the  terms  are  incompatible, 
and  war  follows,  the  chief  responsibility,  it  would  seem, 
should  be  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  party  who  refuses 
to  submit  the  difference  to  an  impartial  tribunal.  On 
this  point,  fortunately,  we  have  definite  information  in 
the  statistics  of  boards  of  arbitration.  The  world  over, 
wherever  these  boards  exist,  their  records  show  that  in  a 
large  majority  of  strikes  it  is  the  employers  that  refuse 
arbitration.  Take  the  statistics  of  France  for  the  period 
1893-1898,  which  happen  to  be  at  hand.  Of  the  581 
attempts  at  conciliation  and  arbitration  during  that 
period,  the  initiative  was  taken  in  22  instances  by  employ- 
ers, in  214  instances  hy  the  workers,  in  12  cases  by  both 
parties  and  in  232  cases  by  a  justice  of  the  peace.  Of  the 
209  cases  of  refusal  to  submit  to  arbitration,  180  were  by 
employers,  16  by  workers,  and  13  by  both  parties. 

Now  if  the  terms  of  the  workingmen  were  in  general 
impossible  and  irrational  they  would  hardly  be  so  ready 
to  submit  them  to  arbitration.  Moreover,  our  statistics 
of  strikes  do  not  indicate  that  these  terms  are  usually 
impossible.  Between  1881  and  1900  inclusive,  strikes 
succeeded  in  51  per  cent,  of  the  establishments  involved, 
succeeded  partly  in  13  per  cent.,  and  failed  in  36  per  cent.  '■ 
In  other  words  the  employers  refused  in  64  per  cent,  of 
the  cases  to  accede  to  terms  which  subsequent  develop- 
ments proved  they  were  able  to  grant,  wholl}^  or  in  part. 
These  figures  indicate  that  it  would  be  just  as  fair,  or 
fairer,  to  lay  the  general  blame  for  strikes  to  the  greed 
and  avarice  of  employers  as  to  the  unwarranted  ambitions 
J4 


210  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

and  selfishness  of  the  strikers.  Of  course  the  responsi- 
hilify  for  each  strike  must  he  separately  determined.  But 
when  we  indulge  in  general  reasoning  let  it  be  placed  upon 
the  best  possible  footing.  The  employer  who  refuses  to 
raise  wages  when  his  profits  permit  is  as  censurable  as  the 
employees  who  strike  for  a  raise  when  there  are  no  profits 
to  be  divided. 

(c)  In  conclusion  a  word  should  be  said  about  the 
ethics  of  the  strike.  Our  law  upon  the  strike  and  boycott 
has  been  made  by  our  judges,  and  owing  to  legal  condi- 
tions which  need  not  be  discussed  here,  our  courts  have 
been  practically  free  to  determine  the  legality  of  strikes 
and  boycotts  in  accordance  with  what  they  believe  to  be 
the  requirements  of  justice  and  far-sighted  social  expe- 
diency. The  doctrine  of  our  most  advanced  courts,  then, 
may  be  taken  to  represent  the  verdict  of  public  opinion 
upon  the  social  and  ethical  aspect  of  these  questions,  and 
it  is  for  this  reason  that  so  much  space,  relatively,  has 
been  devoted  to  the  law  on  strikes  and  boycotts.  The 
essence  of  that  doctrine  is  the  question  of  malicious  intent 
and  by  that  test  the  writer,  at  least,  is  perfectly  willing  to 
have  the  justice  of  every  peaceable  strike  and  boycott 
determined. 

The  doctrine  of  malicious  intent  meets  with  vehement 
opposition  from  the  labor  leaders  and  the  attitude  of  our 
courts  is  severely  censured.  But  after  all,  it  is,  in  one 
sense,  relatively  unimportant.  A  perusal  of  our  court 
decisions  on  labor  disputes  will  make  it  plain  to  anyone 
who  cares  to  take  this  trouble  that  dozens  of  combinations 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  211 

are  condemned  on  the  commonplace  grounds  of  violence, 
riot,  ordinary  assault  and  battery,  to  one  that  is  con- 
demned on  grounds  of  abstract  doctrine. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  about  the  prevalence  of  indus- 
trial violence,  and  no  doubt  at  all  about  the  injury  this 
violence  is  doing  to  the  standing  and  success  of  organized 
labor.  When  questioned  on  this  point,  labor  leaders 
repudiate  lawlessness  and  cite  instances  of  the  use  of 
thugs  and  pugilistic  strike-breakers  by  employers.  But 
neither  the  repudiation  nor  the  citations  constitute  a  valid 
defence.  If  labor  organizations  wish  to  divorce  them- 
selves from  the  violent  elements  which  are  found  in  every 
large  body  of  men,  they  must  come  out  positively  and 
assist  by  deeds  as  well  as  by  words  in  the  suppression  of 
violence.  But  this,  unfortunately,  is  exactly  what  most 
labor  organizations  refuse  to  do.^  A  few  radical  unions 
have  inserted  clauses  in  their  constitutions  or  by-law^s  pro- 
hibiting members  from  enlisting  in  the  militia,  and  noth- 


*  It  is  only  fair  to  add  this  statement  of  the  other  side  of  the  case 
from  the  latest  report  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Council  of  the 
National  Civic  Federation.  "The  evil  that  men  or  organizations  do 
needs  no  vivifying  influence.  It  is  the  good  they  do  that  can  with  ad- 
vantage be  brought  into  the  light  of  publicity.  For  example,  when 
funerals  were  picketed  in  Chicago,  the  grewsome  fact  was  heralded 
throughout  the  land.  But  when  a  little  later  in  the  same  city  a  local 
union  fined  one  of  its  members  for  assaulting  a  non-union  workman  and 
furnished  the  witnesses  to  secure  his  conviction  in  a  criminal  court, 
the  incident  received  only  passing  local  attention  and  elsewhere  was  ig- 
nored. Again,  when  a  union  at  Schenectady  that  had  fallen  under 
socialistic  influence,  expelled  a  member  last  year  because  he  belonged 
to  the  militia,  the  vv-idely  published  statement  evoked  severe  and  sweep- 
ing criticism  of  an  attitude  that  was  ascribed  to  unionism  in  general. 
But  when,  soon  afterward,  the  annual  convention  of  garment  workers 
by  a  large  majority  declared  its  support  of  the  militia,  or  when  Mr. 
Gompers  in  a  trenchant  article  defended  the  militia,  daily  iournalism 
took  no  notice  of  the  facts." 


212  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

ing  SO  arouses  the  resentment  ot  labor  leaders  in  generifi, 
as  the  calling  out  of  troops  in  the  case  of  strikes.  With 
one  voice  they  deny  that  their  followers  participate  in 
violence,  and  denounce  the  measures  which  are  taken  to 
suppress  violence.  Nothing  could  be  more  inconsistent, 
and  few  things  so  injurious  to  the  cause  of  organized 
labor.  The  writer  has  no  desire  to  assume  the  pose  of 
reading  a  lecture  to  the  trade  unions.  They  ought  to 
know  their  best  interests  and  policies  far  better  than  he. 
He  is  sure,  however,  of  this  one  thing:  If  trade  unions 
continue  to  shield,  by  even  so  little  as  silence  and  passive 
indifference,  the  ''scab-slugger"  and  the  bomb-thrower, 
they  will  eventually  find  the  great  mass  of  disinterested 
people — who  are  neither  capitalists  nor  trade  unionists — 
arrayed  against  them  as  strongly  as  in  the  past  they 
have  been  arrayed  in  their  support. 

References  :     For  the  history,  statistics,  state  laws  and  court  de- 
cisions upon  American  strilces,  see  the  fHxtrcnth  Aiuiual  Pcport  of  llir 
(U.  S.)  Commissioner  of  Labor;  and  for  discussions  of  the  economic  and 
Bociai  effects  of  strilies,  the  Final  Report  of  the  ItuItistriaJ  Commission 
Mitchell's    Or<jani::ed    Labor,    Nicholson's    Strikes    and    Social    Prob 
lems     and     Hall's    Sympathetic    Strikes    and     Sympathetic    Lockouts 
Thorough    statements   of   the    law   on    striljes   may   be    found    in    Eddy 
The  Law  of  Combinations  :  Cooke,  The  Law  of  Trade  and  Labor  Com 
binations,  and  T'eport  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XVII,  Pt.  IV, 
the  last  of  whlcli  is  in  many  respects  the  most  serviceable. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 
1.     The  Strilse: 

(a)    Sumner.  "Do  We  Want  Industrial  Peace?"  Forum,  Vol.  8, 

pp.  40G-416. 
(&)    Mitchell,   Nature  of  the  Striiie,   Organised  Labor,  pp.  299- 

(c)  "The  Proper  Conduct  of  a  Strike."  Ibid.,  pp.  316-323. 

(d)  "Methods  of  Strikers  in  Labor  Disputes,"  Final  Report  of 

the  Industrial  Commission,  pp.  877-88.5. 
"^^  (e)    "Methods  of  Employers  in   Labor  Disputes."  Final  Revort 

of  the  Induntrial  Commimtion,  pp.  890-8t!ii. 


STRIKES  AND  BOYCOTTS  213 

(f)  Baker,   "The  Reign  of  Lawlessness,"    (In    Colorado),   Mc- 

Vhire'8  Maf/ozinc,  Vol.  2.S,  pp.  43-57. 

(g)  Illegal    Suppression    of   Strikes,    licport    of    the  Industrial 

Commission,  Vol.   XII,  pp.   Ixxxv-cix. 
Law  on  Combinations: 
(a)    Eddy,  Fundamental  Axioms,  On  Combinations,  Pt.  Ill,  ch. 

5,  6  and  0,  pp.  ll.")-1.30  and  21.")-24."?. 
(5)    Stimson,   Conspiracy,  Handbook  to  the  Labor  Law  of  the 

United  States,  pp.    194-222. 

(c)  Bolen,  "The  Injunction  in  Labor  Disputes,"  Getting  a  Liv- 

ing, ch.   XX,   pp.   .548-r)80. 

(d)  "Legal  Criticisms  on  Extended  Use  of  In.innction,"  Report 

Of  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  611-615. 


CHAPTER  VII 

LABOR  ORGANIZATIONS  AND  EMPLOYERS 
ASSOCIATIONS 

1.  Definitions:  The  temporary  and  intermittent  com. 
bination  of  men  in  the  strike  and  boycott  is  succeeded  in 
time  by  the  more  permanent  labor  organization,  and 
becomes  one  of  the  weapons  or  devices  of  the  labor  organi- 
zation. The  latter  may  be  defined  as  a  continuous  asso- 
ciation of  productive  workers  whose  principal  object  is  the 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  employment.  In  their 
practical  operation  labor  organizations  fall  naturally  into 
three  great  groups,  which  we  shall  speak  of  hereafter  as 
laho7^  unions,  trade  unions  and  industrial  unions.  The 
labor  union  brings  all  classes  of  Avage-earners  under  the 
same  government,  frequently  admits  employers  and  sal- 
aried men,  and  places  its  main  reliance  upon  labor  legis- 
lation, political  activity  and  cooperation  or  socialism. 
The  unit  of  the  trade  union  on  the  other  hand  is  the  occu- 
pation. It  is  composed  almost  exclusively  of  wage-earn- 
ers in  similar  trades,  and  while  not  always  abjuring 
political  activity,  adopts  as  its  most  essential  function  the 
task  of  instituting  collective  action  by  wage-earners  in 
the  settlement  of  the  terms  of  employment,  of  replacing 
individual   by   "collective  bargaining,"  of  substituting 

214 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  215 

for  unregulated  competition  among  wage-earners,  action 
by  "common  rules. "^  The  industrial  union  is  a  modern 
compromise  between  the  other  two.  It  aims  to  unite  in 
one  organization  all  the  workers  of  a  given  industry 
irrespective  of  occupation  ;  but  in  its  policies  and  methods 
it  closely  resembles  the  trade  union  of  the  old  traditional 
type. 

2.  History:  There  has  been  much  discussion  about 
the  origin  of  the  labor  organization.  No  trustworthy 
authority  now  traces  its  descent  from  the  craft  gild,  but 
authorities  differ  over  the  question  whether  some  forms 
of  the  medieval  journeymen's  fraternities  were  not  for  all 
practical  purposes  trade  unions.-  The  point  need  not  be 
debated  here.  Beatrice  and  Sidney  Webb  seem  to  have 
demonstrated''  pretty  conclusively  that  the  labor  organi- 
zation is  a  product  of  the  capitalization  of  industry,  which 
makes  the  barrier  between  journeyman  and  master  prac- 
tically impassable  for  the  great  majority  of  workmen.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  this  differentiation  of  a  class  of 
permanent  employees  took  place  very  early  in  a  few  indus- 
tries, but  that  in  the  main  it  followed  the  industrial 
revolution.  If  these  truths  be  accepted,  it  becomes  easy 
to  harmonize  the  principal  known  facts  concerning  the 
origin   of   the   labor   organization:    (a)    that   scattered 


'  For  these  terms  and.  indeed,  mufh  of  what  is  best  in  the  present 
chapter,  the  author  is  indebted  to  the  worlis  of  Beatrice  and  Sidney 
Webb.  The  History  of  Trade  Inionism,  and  Industrial  Democracy. 

2  The  reader  will  find  a  fair  statement  of  the  pros  and  cons  in  Prof. 
Ashley's  paper  on  'Journeymen's  Clubs"  in  the  Political  Science  Quar- 
trrhi.  Vol.  XII.  p.  128  et  seq. 

'  History  of  Trade  Unionism,  pp.  24-39. 


216  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

instances  are  found  as  early  as  the  fourteenth  century,  in 
which  journeymen's  associations  seemed  to  exercise  for  a 
period  at  least  the  essential  functions  of  the  modern  labor 
organization  ;  (b)  that  nevertheless  in  the  classic  home  of 
the  labor  organization — England— labor  organizations 
did  not  become  prominent  and  numerous  until  after  the 
industrial  revolution ;  (c)  and  that  in  other  countries  the 
labor  organization  did  not  create  a  real  social  problem 
until  the  nineteenth  century.  Thus  the  first  American 
labor  organization  of  which  we  have  positive  record  is 
the  New  York  Society  of  Journeymen  Shipwrights,  which 
was  incorporated  in  1803.  This  date  marks  with  sufficient 
accuracy  the  birth  of  labor  organization  in  the  United 
States.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  add,  however,  that  the 
evidence  oifered  in  the  well-known  Boot  and  Shoemakers' 
case  of  Philadelphia  (1806)  makes  it  reasonably  certain 
that  a  trade  union  existed  among  the  shoemakers  of  Phila- 
delphia in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century.  But 
for  all  practical  purposes  the  labor  organization  in  the 
United  States  is  a  nineteenth  century  product. 

The  history  of  organized  labor  in  the  United  States 
since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  is,  above  all 
else,  a  remarkable  record  of  steady  growth,  from  a  condi- 
tion in  which  there  was,  to  our  positive  knowledge,  not  a 
single  labor  organization  in  existence,  to  a  condition  in 
which  a  single  federation  unites  for  certain  purposes 
nearly  two  million  wage-earners.  This  expansion  has 
characterized  every  period  of  any  extent  during  the  cent- 
ury,  although   it   has   not   been   wholly   uninterrupted. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  217 

Assuming  its  truth  without  further  comment,  it  may 
prove  suggestive  to  call  attention  to  certain  other  pre- 
dominant characteristics  of  the  fairly  well  defined  periods 
of  development  which  may  be  distinguished. 

The  first  quarter  of  the  century  needs  no  comment.  It 
was  a  "germinal  period,"  during  which  labor  organiza- 
tions are  mentioned  with  increasing  frequency,  although 
no  remarkable  development  occurred.  The  flowering 
period  of  American  labor  organizations  occurred  between 
1825  and  1850.  The  same  period  in  England  has  been 
aptly  called  the  "revolutionary  period,"  and  the  term 
accurately  defines  conditions  in  the  United  States.  It 
was  a  time  of  intense  intellectual  ferment,  to  which  may 
be  traced  spiritualism,  Mormonism,  American  communism 
and  socialism,  and  indeed  most  other  "isms"  with  which 
the  student  of  American  history  has  to  deal.  Reform 
was  in  the  air ;  the  passionate  campaign  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery  w^as  at  its  height ;  communistic  experiments 
were  in  operation  at  New  Harmony,  Brook  Farm  and 
other  places  ;  while  Robert  Owen,  Albert  Brisbane  and  the 
best  minds  in  New  England  were  boldly  preaching  social- 
istic doctrines.  All  this  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the 
labor  movement.  Trade  unions  in  the  narrow  sense  mul- 
tiplied rapidly,  but  the  most  characteristic  development 
was  the  formation  of  a  large  number  of  loosely  organized, 
semi-political  associations,  in  which  unskilled  laborers, 
women,  farmers  and  other  employers  were  admitted— 
often,  indeed,  indiscriminately  mixed — which  dissipated 
their  energies  in  the  championship  of  woman's  rights, 


218  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

land  naturalization,  abolition ;  and  which  finally,  in  the 
attempt  to  reform  things  in  general,  did  nothing  at  all. 
The  most  typical  of  these  organizations,  perhaps,  were  the 
New  England  Workingmen's  Association,  the  New  Eng- 
land Protective  Union  and  the  Industrial  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  three  closely  identified  associations  which 
were  organized  about  1845  and  became  moribund  a  few 
years  later.  Thus  ended  the  first  attempts  to  found  labor 
organizations  upon  enthusiasm,  altruism  and  general 
social  discontent. 

The  failure  of  the  ambitious  labor  unions  of  the  revolu- 
tionary period  turned  men's  minds  to  the  necessity  of 
careful,  systematic  organization  upon  business  principles, 
and  in  England  as  well  as  the  United  States,  the  revolu- 
tionary period  was  followed  by  a  marked  improvement  in 
the  government  and  administration  of  the  trade  unions 
proper.  Old  customs  such  as  the  * '  drink  allowance ' '  were 
abandoned,  political  affiliations  were  dropped,  less  atten- 
tion was  devoted  to  ' '  Reform, ' '  and  more  attention  to  the 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  employment;  most 
important  of  all  perhaps,  the  local  unions,  too  often  antag- 
onistic and  quaj-relsome,  began  to  combine  into  larger  anal 
more  powerful  national  unions.  There  is  some  reason  !o 
believe  that  a  national  union— the  Silk  and  Fur  Hat 
Finishers'  National  Association— was  founded  in  1843; 
but  the  first  national  union  of  which  we  have  positive 
record- the  International  Typographical  Union— was 
organized  under  a  slightly  different  name  in  1850.  The 
interval  between  1850  and  1866  may  well  be  described  as 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND    ASSOCIATIONS  219 

the  period  of  nationalization.  By  1866,  ''from  thirty  to 
forty  national  and  international  trade  unions  and  amal- 
gamated societies  were  in  evidence,  some  of  them  number- 
ing tens  of  thousands  of  men." 

The  score  of  years  between  1866  and  1886,  beginning 
with  the  formation  of  the  National  Labor  Union,  contem- 
poraneous with  the  meteoric  rise  of  the  Knights  of  I;abor, 
and  ending  with  the  reorganization  and  rejuvenation  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  w^as  above  all  else  a 
period  of  amalgamation.  There  was  a  modified  revival  of 
the  spirit  that  had  marked  the  second  quarter  of  the  cent- 
ury. In  1866  the  labor  organizations  of  the  country  united 
in  the  formation  of  the  National  Labor  Union  This  or- 
ganization made  an  auspicious  start,  but  soon  passed  from 
the  consideration  of  arbitration,  hours  of  labor,  strikes  and 
other  labor  problems,  to  the  endorsement  of  wild  schemes 
of  irredeemable  paper  money,  became  involved  in  politics, 
and  then  perished.  In  1868  it  is  said  to  have  had  an 
aggregate  membership  of  640,000.  "Its  convention  at 
Cincinnati  in  1869  showed  a  marked  decline,  and  an 
insignificant  meeting  at  St.  Louis  in  1870  barely  called 
attention  to  its  death. ' '  The  task  of  the  National  Labor 
Union  was  taken  up  by  that  wonderful  organization,  The 
Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

We  shall  not  linger  over  the  absorbing  story  of  the  rise 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  from  a  little  local  union  of  seven 
garment  cutters  in  1869  to  a  vast  amalgamation  of  more 
than  600,000  members  in  1886,  the  year  of  its  greatest 
power  and  influence.     The  real  significance  of  the  history 


220  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

of  the  Knights  of  Labor  lies  in  the  aims,  the  policies  and 
the  structure  of  that  organization.  In  government  it  was 
more  highly  centralized,  perhaps,  than  any  general  labor 
organization  that  has  ever  existed  for  any  considerable 
length  of  time.  Its  general  executive  board,  to  illustrate 
by  a  brief  statement,  could  suspend  any  local  officer  or 
member,  revoke  any  charter,  and  by  a  unanimous  vote, 
terminate  any  strike,  general  or  local.  In  structure  it  was 
a  polyglot.  It  began  as  a  trade  union,  but  soon  introduced 
mixed  assemblies  in  which  members  of  any  trade  were 
received  ;  incorporated  in  its  ranks  employers,  professional 
men,  in  fact  any  person  over  sixteen  years  of  age  not  a 
lawyer,  banker,  professional  gambler  or  liquor  dealer; 
and  amalgamated  these  potentially  discordant  elements 
into  district  assemblies  and  finally  into  a  national  organi- 
zation from  which  local  autonomy  of  any  sort  was  prac- 
tically eliminated.  Lastly,  the  official  policy  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor  was  to  discourage  strikes  and  boycotts 
and  place  the  main  reliance  upon  political  action,  coopera- 
tion and  education.  Back  of  its  structure,  government 
and  policies  was  the  inspiring  theory  that  mechanical 
inventions  are  making  the  skilled  trades  increasingly 
dependent  upon  the  lower  grades  of  unskilled  labor,  and 
that  the  laboring  classes  must  be  elevated  en  masse  or  not 
at  all.  "That  is  the  most  perfect  government,"  the 
official  motto  asserts,  "in  which  an  injury  to  one  is  the 
concern  of  all." 

The  period  from  1886  to  the  present  time  marks  a 
decided,  though  possibly  a  temporary,  victory  for  the  trade 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  221 

anion  as  opposed  to  the  labor  iinion,  for  federation  as 
opposed  to  amalgamation.  The  Knights  of  Labor  de- 
clined, at  first  slowly  and  then  with  headlong  rapidity. 
First  they  became  involved  in  extensive  strikes  and  costly 
cooperative  schemes,  the  failure  of  which  damaged  the 
prestige  and  drained  the  treasury  of  the  order.  Then 
their  peculiar  organization  brought  them  into  an  inevita- 
ble conflict  with  the  strict  trade  unions,  whose  cause  was 
taken  up  and  vigorously  championed  by  the  Federation 
of  Labor.  And  as  the  Knights  declined,  their  political 
entanglements  became  more  marked.  In  1896  free  silver 
was  endorsed ;  in  1898  expansion  was  condemned ;  and  in 
1899  William  McKinley  was  officially  recognized  as  the 
"bitter  enemy  of  labor. "^  In  1900  a  quarrel  arose 
among  the  officers  of  the  organization,  which  had  to  be 
taken  to  the  courts  for  settlement,  and  to-day  the  Order  is 
little  more  than  a  name. 

Its  decline  was  contemporaneous  with,  and  in  a  large 
measure  due  to,  the  growth  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor.  The  latter  was  organized  in  1881  as  the  Fed- 
eration of  Organized  Trades  and  Labor  Unions  of  the 
United  States  of  America  and  Canada,  and  included  95 
organizations  having  a  combined  membership  of  262,000. 
From  1881  to  1886  the  Federation  declined  rather  than 
progressed,  but  in  the  latter  year  it  reorganized  under  the 
present  title,  and  undertook  a  vigorous  defence  of  trade- 
unionism  as  opposed  to  the  centralizing  tendencies  of  the 

*  No  judgment  concerning  the  justice  of  tliese  measures  is  meant  to  be 
conveyed.  Wise  or  unwise,  the  simple  fact  is  that  they  played  an  Im- 
portant part  in  bringing  about  the  downfall  of  the  Order. 


222  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Knights  of  Labor.  After  1886,  the  Federation  grew 
steadily,  with  some  loss  in  membership  during  the  indus- 
trial depression  that  began  in  1893,  and  after  prosperity 
returned  increased  by  giant  strides  until  at  the  end  of 
1903  it  had  a  combined  membership  of  nearly  1,800,000. 

In  organization  and  policy  the  Federation  has  been  the 
\ery  antithesis  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  In  structure  it 
is  a  confederation,  dealing  with  unions  or  local  federations 
whenever  possible,  carefully  refraining  from  the  slightest 
infraction  of  the  autonomy  of  its  constituent  unions,  and 
confining  itself  to  those  objects  which  all  labor  organiza- 
tions have  in  common,  namely :  the  maintenance  of  a  labor 
press,  the  passage  of  favorable  labor  legislation,  the 
amicable  settlement  of  disputes  between  unions,  the  more 
extended  use  of  the  union  label  and  the  "unfair  list," 
and  most  important  of  all,  the  complete  organization 
along  trade  lines  of  the  entire  body  of  wage-earners.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Federation  has  consistently  refrained 
from  partisan  politics,  and  while  endorsing  voluntary 
conciliation  and  collective  bargaining,  has  just  as  con- 
sistently defended  the  right  and  expediency  of  a  measured 
use  of  the  strike.  In  short  it  gives  free  play  to  an  enlight- 
ened self-interest  in  the  individual  trades,  while  supply- 
ing a  ready  instrument  for  the  accomplishment  of  those 
aims  which  can  safely  be  prosecuted  in  common. 

This  attenuated  outline  of  the  development  of  the 
American  labor  organization,  while  emphasizing  what  is 
probably  the  most  important  problem  of  labor  organiza- 
tion, needs  to  be  supplemented  by  the  reader  from  other 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND    ASSOCIATIONS  223 

sources.  Since  the  Civil  "War  a  powoi-ful  labor  press  has 
been  established ;  the  railroad  brotherhoods  and  a  few 
other  unions  have  created  efficient  lahor  lobbies  anci 
infinitely  improved  the  auxiliary  feature  of  union  insur- 
ance ;  the  strike  has  been  placed  on  a  business  footing,  the 
boycott  systematized,  and  an  extensive  system  of  collective 
bargaining  created,  until,  at  the  present  time,  probably  an 
immense  majority  of  the  general  changes  in  the  terms  of 
employment  are  peaceably  accomplished  by  collective  bar- 
gaining; in  very  recent  years,  the  rapid  formation  and 
confederation  of  hostile  employers'  associations  has  led 
to  an  anti-labor  movement  whose  reaction  upon  the  labor 
organization  will  not  improbably  furnish  the  keynote  of 
the  labor  movement  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  and  rapidity  of 
the  development  can  be  gathered  from  the  following  table, 
which  shows  with  approximate  correctness  the  growth  of 
the  aggregate  membership  of  labor  organizations  in  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  the  State  of  New  York, 
and  several  foreign  countries.  At  the  beginning  of  1904 
the  total  membership  of  American  labor  organizations 
was  probably  not  far  from  2,350,000 ;  about  1,750,000  in 
the  Federation  of  Labor  (dues  were  paid  on  1,745,270  in 
September,  1903),  and  600,000  in  the  railroad  brother- 
hoods and  other  organizations  not  affiliated  with  the 
Federation. 

3.  Historical  Lessons:  The  history  of  the  labor 
organization  proves  a  few  points  conclusively,  such  as  the 
intimate  dependence  of  the  prosperity  of  labor  organiza- 


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ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  225 

tions  upon  general  industrial  prosperity,  the  great  advan- 
tages of  an  auxiliary  insurance  S3^stem — particularly  the 
out-of-work  benefit— and  the  possibility  of  successful 
unionism  without  either  monopolistic  exclusion,  violence 
or  socialism.  In  certain  more  important  problems,  while 
it  proves  nothing  conclusively,  it  does  establish  serviceable 
rules  from  which  departure  should  be  made  only  after  the 
most  exhaustive  proof  that  the  policies  which  have  repeat- 
edly failed  in  the  past,  will  not  again  lead  to  disaster. 

(a)  First  of  all,  among  the  working  rules  derived  from 
experience  is  the  danger  of  direct  participation  in  parti- 
san politics.  This  danger  has  been  exemplified  in  the 
slight  historical  sketch  given  in  the  preceding  pages.  In 
Germany  even  the  unions  founded  by  the  social  democrats 
have  found  it  necessary  to  divorce  their  political  from 
their  trade  activities,  and  in  1900  Bebel  himself,  the  leader 
of  the  Social  Democrats,  emphatically  declared  that 
"politics  ought  to  be  driven  out  of  the  unions."  The 
Knights  of  Labor  in  the  past,  and  the  American  Labor 
Union  of  to-day  emphatically  reject  this  rule  and  main- 
tain that  the  greatest  victories  can  be  secured  only 
through  political  action.  The  writer  does  not  presume  to 
deny  this  contention.  What  is  historically  indisputable 
is  that  direct  political  activity  is  excessively  dangerous 
and  difficult.  Now  obviously,  the  labor  organization  can- 
not escape  from  political  connections  of  some  sort.  It 
must  secure  favorable  legislation,  and  defeat  adverse 
legislation.  Admitting  the  important  political  interests 
of  organized  labor,  however,  past  experience  seems  to 
15 


226  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

teach  unequivocally  that  labor  organizations  have  far 
more  to  gain  by  manipulating  legislatures  and  political 
parties  as  other  social  institutions  do,  than  by  direct  par- 
ticipation in  politics.  A  labor  party,  so  completely 
independent  of  the  trade  unions  as  not  to  involve  the  latter 
in  its  own  defeats,^  might  possibly  prove  advantageous  to 
the  wage-earning  classes.  This  possibility  need  not  be 
discussed  here.  What  past  experience  teaches  is  first  that 
the  trade  union  pure  and  simple  is  capable  of  rendering 
invaluable  service  to  the  wage-earning  classes,  and  second, 
that  when  a  trade  uaion  becomes  a  political  club  it  ceases 
to  be  a  successful  labor  organization. 

(b)  The  decay  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  New  Eng- 
land Workingmen's  Association  and  other  similar  labor 
unions  is  to  be  charged  in  part  to  the  undue  elevation,  as 
well  as  the  superabundance,  of  their  ideals.  It  is  an 
unpleasant  charge  to  bring  against  any  institution,  this 
reproach  that  it  aimed  too  high  to  be  serviceable.  But  the 
truth  is  that  the  trade  union  of  to-day  is  a  commercial 
organization,  not  an  ethical  society ;  its  function  is  busi- 
ness, not  discussion;  and  business — bargaining — is  now 
its  fundamental  raison  d'etre.  It  began  in  the  eighteenth 
century  as  a  provident  and  social  club,  assisting  wander- 
ing journeymen  in  their  travels,  and  offering  to  resident 
members  an  opportunity  and  excuse  for  relaxation. 
Down  until  1840  in  England,  a  third  of  the  income  of 

*  A  safe  and  ingenious  method  of  political  participation  through  an 
independent  organization  has  recently  been  introduced  in  England  in 
the  Labor  Representation  Committee.  A  short  description  of  this  or- 
ganization may  be  found  in  the  New  International  Encyclopedia,  Vol. 
X,  p.  803. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND    ASSOCIATIONS  227 

certain  trade  unions  was  by  rule  devoted  to  drink,  and  the 
president,  selected  by  rotation  or  lot,  was  distinguished 
principally  by  the  privilege  of  making  "his  own  choice  of 
liquors,  wine  only  excepted. ' '  To-day  the  moving  spirit 
of  the  local  union  is  the  business  agent,  and  many  of  the 
most  powerful  unions  thrive  with  little  attention  to 
friendly  benefits.  It  makes  a  stirring  story,  this  gradual 
transformation  of  a  friendly  club  into  a  powerful  com- 
mercial organization  selling  labor  by  wholesale,  a  story 
too  that  is  undoubtedly  authentic,  though  its  details  can 
not  be  presented  here.  But  so  the  story  runs,  and  its  con- 
clusion alleviates  the  disappointment  one  inevitably  feels 
in  recounting  the  failure  of  organizations  like  the  Knights 
of  Labor  whose  ultimate  ideals  were  so  winning  and 
inspiring.  For  the  present  function,  par  excellence,  of 
the  labor  organization  is  collective  bargaining,  and  col- 
lective bargaining,  it  is  believed,  is  the  inevitable  pre- 
cursor, historically  speaking,  of  the  era  of  industrial 
peace. 

(c)  Finally,  the  failure  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  and 
similar  organizations  seems  to  prove,  or  establishes  a 
strong  presumption,  that  the  fundamental  unit  of  labor 
organization  must  be  a  trade  or  industrial  body,  and  that 
the  necessary  combination  of  these  trade  societies  must 
take  the  form  of  federation,  not  amalgamation.  The 
Knights  of  Labor,  it  will  be  remembered,  admitted 
employers,  salaried  men  and  foremen ;  in  a  large  number 
of  its  constituent  unions  mixed  these  ingredients  with 
wage-earners  of  all  trades,  and  governed  the  whole  body 


228  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

from  above.  Its  experience  shows  that  amalgamation 
and  such  centralization  of  government  are  dangerous  if 
not  necessarily  fatal.  Different  trades,  and  a  fortiori 
employers  and  employees,  do  not  have  the  same  interests, 
and  where  their  interests  conflict  can  not  be  forced  to  com- 
bine successfully.  The  sovereignty  must  rest  in  the  con- 
stituent union,  the  federation  must  confine  itself  to  those 
interests  alone  which  all  labor  organizations  have  in  com- 
mon, and  in  particular,  it  must  give  free  rein  to  the 
members  of  each  trade  to  avail  themselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunities and  resist  the  evils  peculiar  to  the  trade.  But  in 
these  topics  we  are  touching  on  the  problems  of  organiza- 
tion and  structure. 

4.  Government:  The  details  of  union  government 
and  structure  are  so  overwhelmingly  complex,  and  in  their 
general  outlines  so  familiar,  that  they  will  have  to  be 
omitted  in  order  to  make  space  for  one  or  two  larger  prob- 
lems of  union  government  which  vitally  affect  the  general 
public  welfare.^ 

Historical!}',  the  governmental  unit  of  the  labor  organi- 
zation seems  to  have  been  the  local  trade  club,  an  associa- 
tion of  the  workers  of  one  trade  in  a  particular  locality, 
although  in  a  few  trades  the  workers  in  each  establish- 
ment were  grouped  into  shop  clubs  or  sub-locals,  such  as 
the  "chapels"  among  the  printers,  which  were— and  still 
are— charged  with  important  administrative  functions. 
But  with  the  growth  in  the  feeling  of  solidarity  among 

'  Abundant  material  upon  union  government  and  structure  may  be 
found  In  Vol.  XVII  of  the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commtssion,  pp. 
xv-xxxll,  1-324,  821-857. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  229 

working  people,  and  with  the  increased  mobility  of  labor 
following  modern  improvements  in  transportation  facili- 
ties, there  came  an  inevitable  expansion  of  the  unit  of 
government,  accompanying  these  changes  in  what  might 
be  called  the  competitive  area.  The  real  unit  became  the 
national  group  of  workers  in  the  trade,  or  even  the  work- 
ers of  several  nations  if  real  competition  existed  over  so 
wide  an  area,  and  at  present,  instead  of  local  clubs  uniting 
to  form  national  unions,  we  have  national  bodies  delib- 
erately organizing  locals  in  places  and  trades  where  they 
have  not  previously  existed.  The  local  is  at  present 
rather  the  creature  than  the  creator  of  the  national. 

However,  this  expansion  of  the  governmental  unit  has 
not  yet  worked  itself  out  completely,  and  we  are  still  in  an 
intermediate  stage.  The  sovereignty  is  divided.  Thus, 
most  national  unions  may  levy  assessments,  and  direct  or 
check  strikes.  But  only  in  one  or  two  unions  like  the 
United  Mine  Workers,  is  the  power  of  assessment  even 
theoretically  unlimited ;  while  with  the  exception  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers,  the  Broom  Makers,  the  Iron,  Steel 
and  Tin  Workers,  and  three  or  four  others,  no  American 
national  can  force  a  local  to  strike  against  its  will,  or  pun- 
ish it  adequately  for  inaugurating  a  strike  without  the 
national  sanction.  The  average  local  still  retains  very 
extensive  powers  in  theory,  and  in  many  unions  is  almost 
autonomous  in  practice.  Nevertheless  the  powerful 
unions  in  general  are  those  in  which  the  national  govern- 
ment is  strong,  and  as  the  insurance  benefit  system  is 
slowly  spreading,   and  the   competitive   area   gradually 


230  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

widening,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  power 
of  the  national  will  increase. 

This  movement  is  a  very  encouraging  one,  because  the 
increase  in  the  power  of  the  national  means,  in  most  cases, 
an  increase  in  the  power  of  the  national  administration, 
and  the  national  officers  are  usually  very  superior  men. 
This  is  best  shown  in  the  emergence  of  a  group  of  honest, 
efficient  union  leaders  exercising  powers  which  were 
virtually  unknown  half  a  century  ago  in  the  United 
States.  Many  of  these  officials  are  retained  in  office  prac- 
tically during  good  behavior.  Thus  Mr.  Powderly  was 
General  Master  Workman  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  from 
1879  to  1893 ;  Mr.  Gompers  has  been  at  the  head  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  since  1882  with  the  excep- 
tion of  three  years ;  and  Mr.  Arthur  was  the  executive  of 
the  Locomotive  Engineers  from  1874  until  his  death  in 
1903.  This  permanency  of  tenure  and  one-man  power  is 
irrespective  of  the  kind  of  government:  it  has  occurred 
alike  in  the  centralized  Knights  of  Labor,  and  the  decen- 
tralized Federation  of  Labor;  among  the  highly  paid 
locomotive  engineers  and  the  poorly  paid  coal  miners;  it 
is  merely  another  illustration  of  the  unimportance  of 
structure  when  compared  with  personnel. 

5.  Structure  and  Organization :  It  is  almost  needless 
to  say  that  as  the  unions  increased  in  number  and  power, 
a  great  variety  of  federations  were  formed.  First  of  these 
federations  in  point  of  time  were  the  trades  alliances  or 
municipal  federations,  often  called  "centrals"  or  "city 
centrals."     Then  came  the  state  or  district  federations, 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  231 

for  the  purpose  of  looking  after  labor  legislation,  settling 
inter-union  quarrels,  etc.,  within  the  limits  of  the  state  or 
some  larger  district.  There  followed— no  exact  chrono- 
logical order  can  be  discerned  here,  however, — the  indus- 
trial federations  generally,  some,  like  the  National  Build- 
ing Trades  Council,  charged  wath  the  settlement  of 
virtually  all  those  larger  questions  which  affect  all  the 
trades  of  a  given  industry,  others  confining  themselves 
strictly  to  one  or  two  specified  functions  like  the  main- 
tenance of  a  joint  lobby  or  the  combination  of  forces  in 
case  of  strikes.  One  of  the  most  recent  forms  of  indus- 
trial federation  is  the  alliance  between  the  employers  and 
employees  of  a  given  industry,  for  the  common  increase 
of  wages  and  profits  through  monopolistic  control  of 
prices.  Finally  we  have  the  general  federation  of  trade 
unions  covering  an  entire  country,  like  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  the  period  in  which  trade 
unions  were  expanding  and  federating,  a  different  and 
partially  antagonistic  force  was  at  work — the  feeling  that 
trade  unionism  means  trade  selfishness,  and  that  the 
whole  laboring  population  should  be  united  in  a  strongly 
centralized  union  in  which  the  power  of  the  skilled  arti- 
sans could  be  used  to  protect  and  support  the  weaker 
classes  of  unskilled  labor.  It  was  this  desire  for  amal- 
gamation which  led,  in  the  United  States,  to  the  formation 
of  the  labor  union,  as  distinguished  from  the  trade  union. 
Amalgamation  in  the  labor  union  assumes  different  forms. 
In  some  cases,  c.  g.,  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  trades  are 


232  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

mixed  in  the  local  unions,  as  well  as  in  the  national  organi- 
zation.^ In  other  cases,  trade  unions  are  incorporated  in 
such  a  way  as  to  preserve  their  individuality,  although,  of 
course,  trade  autonomy  is  destroyed  by  the  centralization 
of  power  in  the  general  government. 

As  has  already  been  pointed  out,  the  labor  unions  differ 
from  the  trade  unions  not  only  in  structure,  but  in  tactics 
and  policy  as  well.  In  very  recent  times  a  third  class  of 
unions  has  appeared  which  differ  from  the  trade  unions  in 
structure,  but  pursue  the  old  traditional  trade-union 
policies,  and  fraternize  with  the  trade  bodies  in  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  of  Labor.  These  are  the  so-called  indus- 
trial unions  or  * '  industrials, ' '  in  which  all  the  workers  in 
a  single  industry,  irrespective  of  trade,  are  grouped 
together  under  the  same  government.  Some  of  the  indus- 
trials, like  the  United  Mine  Workers,  merge  the  different 
trades  in  the  local  unions ;  others,  like  the  United  Brewery 
"Workers,  form  local  trade  units,  but  amalgamate  them  in 
the  national  organization.  The  essential  difference  be- 
tween the  industrial  and  the  labor  union,  however,  is  illus- 
trated by  the  fact  that  the  industrial  unions  are  just  as 
jealous  of  industrial  autonomy  as  the  trade  unions  are  of 
trade  autonomy.  The  several  classes  of  industrial  unions, 
together  with  those  previously  described  and  a  few 
other  species,  are  grouped  together  in  the  following 
classification : 


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occupations  or  places  where  for  various  reasons  trade  locals  can  not  at 
the  time  be  organized. 


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234  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

6.  Jurisdiction  Disputes:  With  so  many  principles 
of  organization  in  vogue,  conflicts  of  jurisdiction  must 
inevitably  occur,  and  these  conflicts  constitute  not  only  the 
most  dangerous  problem  to  the  world  of  organized  labor, 
but  a  serious  menace  to  the  industry  of  the  country  at 
large.  Even  President  Gompers  himself  has  been  forced 
to  confess  not  only  that  the  jurisdiction  dispute  threatens 
"the  very  existence  of  the  American  Federation  of  La- 
bor, ' '  but  that  it  has  aroused  ' '  the  most  bitter  feuds  and 
trade  wars, ' '  through  which  in  many  instances  '  *  employ- 
ers fairly  inclined  towards  organized  labor  have  been 
made  innocently  to  suffer  from  causes  entirely  beyond 
their  control."  In  fact  this  whole  chapter  might  easily 
be  filled  with  instances  of  great  industries  like  the  Tyne- 
side  shipbuilding  industry  tied  up  for  months  by  trivial 
quarrels  between  plumbers  and  machinists  as  to  which 
trade  had  the  right  to  handle  iron  pipes  of  a  certain  size, 
or  of  great  building  operations  suspended  for  months 
while  a  New  York  and  a  Newark  (N.  J.)  union  decided 
which  organization  should  have  the  work  on  a  Newark 
building  whose  electrical  fitting  up  had  been  undertaken 
by  a  New  York  contractor.  But  these  dramatic  and 
gravely  important  details  must  be  omitted,  to  give  space 
for  an  analytical  statement  of  the  nature  of  the  evil,  that 
vvill  furnish  some  idea  about  the  possibility  and  method  of 
its  eure.^ 

*  For  a  detailed  description  of  representative  jurisdiction  disputes  see 
tlie  Ticcniy-fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  New 
Jersey,  pp.  408-424  ;  Reports  of  the  Industrial  Commission.  Vol.  VIII, 
pp.  325,  336,  ct  passim. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  235 

Jurisdiction  disputes  are  of  four  distinct  types:  (a) 
Territorial  disputes  in  which  rival  or  "dual"  unions 
quarrel  about  the  control  of  a  certain  territory.  Thus 
the  American  Labor  Union  bitterly  resents  the  organiza- 
tion of  unions  by  the  Federation  of  Labor  in  the  territory 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  (b)  Demarcation  dis- 
putes, in  which  two  or  more  trades  lay  claim  to  certain 
kinds  of  work  which  may  be  performed  by  either.  This 
is  the  commonest  form  of  the  jurisdiction  dispute ;  the 
machinists  and  plumbers,  the  carpenters  and  w^ood 
workers,  the  structural  iron  workers  and  the  architec- 
tural iron  workers,  for  example,  are  constantly  quarrel- 
ing over  work  lying  midway  between  each  pair  of  trades, 
(e)  Organization  disputes:  These  are  of  two  varieties. 
The  first  arise  from  the  increasing  specialization  of  work 
as  industry  develops.  Thus  the  printer's  trade  was  orig- 
inally a  homogeneous  one  and  the  Typographical  Union 
lived  in  peace  and  harmony,  but  as  the  pressmen,  book- 
binders, stereotypers,  electrotypers,  and  linotype  machin- 
ists were  differentiated,  each  class  endeavored,  and  in 
most  cases  succeeded,  in  setting  up  an  independent  union. 
Independence,  however,  was  usually  secured  only  after  a 
series  of  the  most  stubborn  conflicts  between  the  more 
extensive  and  the  less  extensive  union,  concerning  the  ' 
autonomy  of  the  latter,  (d)  The  second  class  of  organi- 
zation disputes  has  given  rise  to  the  much  discussed  prob- 
lem of  industrialism  versus  trade  autonomy.  Many  of 
the  most  powerful  American  unions  attempt  to  unite  all 
the  workers  in  a  particular  inv^ustry.     This  inevitably 


236  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

causes  trouble  with  the  sectional  unions  of  the  trades  rep- 
resented in  the  industry.  Thus  the  Brewery  Workers 
have  quarreled  continually  with  the  coopers',  the  paint- 
ers ',  and  the  teamsters '  unions ;  the  United  Mine  Workers 
have  had  trouble  with  the  Stationary  Engineers ;  in  fact 
the  proceedings  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  are 
crowded  with  demands  for  the  settlement  of  disputes  be* 
tween  industrial  and  trade  unions. 

Many  remedies  for  the  jurisdiction  dispute  have  been 
proposed.  The  Federation  of  Labor,  the  National  Build- 
ing Trades  Council  and  other  organizations  require  all 
unions,  before  affiliating,  to  file  a  jurisdiction  statement 
describing  with  all  possible  exactness  the  kind  of  work 
over  which  they  claim  jurisdiction.  The  jurisdiction 
statement,  however,  has  accomplished  little  or  nothing, 
for  the  very  obvious  reason,  among  others,  that  it  cannot 
anticipate  the  new  kinds  of  work  which  invention  and 
changes  in  industrial  methods  are  constantly  creating. 
Moreover,  it  supplies  no  remedy  for  the  territorial  and 
organization  disputes. 

Amalgamation  is  the  sovereign  remedy  proposed  by 
another  group  of  unionists.  Of  course,  if  there  existed  a 
successful  general  union  like  the  Knights  of  Labor,  amal- 
gamating all  the  trade  and  labor  organizations  of  the 
world,  the  central  government  would  be  able  to  settle 
every  sort  of  dispute  which  could  arise.  Moreover,  it  is 
not  really  necessary  from  the  present  standpoint  that  the 
amalgamation  should  cover  all  the  trades  of  all  the  world  ; 
it  is  only  necessary  that  an  amalgamation  should  exist  in 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  231 

each  group  of  related  trades  between  which  demarcation 
disputes  arise,  for  each  district  or  group  of  states  through-? 
out  which  wage-earners  actually  compete  for  work. 
Amalgamation,  however,  has  never  proved  practical  in 
the  past,  whatever  it  may  do  in  the  future.  Its  essential 
defect  is  that  it  deprives  the  workers  in  a  particular  trade 
or  industry  from  taking  quick  advantage  of  special  indus- 
trial opportunities  of  improving  the  conditions  of  employ- 
ment. Moreover,  as  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  point  out, 
"experience  seems  to  show  that  in  no  trade  will  a  well 
paid  and  well  organized  but  numerically  weak  section 
consent  to  remain  in  subordination  to  inferior  operatives, 
which  any  amalgamation  of  all  sections  of  a  large  and 
varied  industry  must  usually  involve. ' ' 

Extreme  opponents  of  amalgamation  find  a  remedy  for 
the  organization  disputes,  at  least,  in  the  extirpation  of 
industrialism  and  the  complete  application  of  the  trade 
principle  of  organization.  The  industrial  union  un- 
doubtedly has  its  faults.  Highly  paid  artisans  are  subor- 
dinated, because  of  inferior  numbers,  to  miners  and 
breaker  boys  in  the  Mine  Workers '  Union ;  in  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  the  pressmen  and  bookbinders,  before 
their  secession,  continually  complained  that  their  meas- 
ures were  voted  down  by  the  compositors,  who  were  in  a 
large  majority.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  industrial 
organization  possesses  notable  advantages  both  for  em- 
ployers and  employees,  particularly  in  strikes  and  collec- 
tive bargaining.  Representatives  of  the  employers  may, 
in  conference  with  officers  of  a  single  union,  arrange  the 


238  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

terms  of  employment  for  all  workers  in  that  industry. 
And  industrial  organization  indefinitely  increases  the 
aggressive  strength  of  the  employees.  A  single  edict  from 
the  union's  headquarters  will  tie  up  the  whole  industry; 
and  emploj^ers  who  would  find  it  a  comparatively  easy 
matter  to  replace  workers  of  a  single  class,  say  miners, 
find  it  impossible  to  replace  the  whole  working  force, 
including  the  highly  skilled  hoisting  engineers  and  fire- 
men. Moreover,  trade  organization  is  characterized  by 
this  important  defect :  a  strike  on  the  part  of  a  small  and 
insignificant  union  may  throw  out  of  employment  a  much 
larger  group  of  workers.  Thus,  in  1901,  over  50,000 
miners  were  compelled  to  stop  work  by  a  strike  among  the 
stationary  firemen  in  the  mining  industry,  who  probably 
numbered  less  than  2,000  persons.  This  could  not  occur 
against  the  will  of  the  majority  in  an  industrial  union. 
The  industrial  union  has  undoubtedly  come  to  stay,  and 
in  some  way  the  best  features  of  both  the  industrial  and 
the  trade  union  must  be  preserved. 

There  is  no  single  or  simple  remedy  for  the  jurisdiction 
dispute.  It  can  only  be  eliminated  by  a  number  of  modi- 
fications in  organization,  which,  although  they  will  make 
the  ultimate  structure  of  the  world  of  organized  labor  far 
different  from  its  present  form,  are  even  now  plainly  in 
process  of  consummation.  The  quickest  way  to  describe 
the  remedy  for  jurisdiction  disputes,  is  to  outline  the 
ultimate  form  of  labor  organization. 

(a)  The  fundamental  unit  must  plainly  possess  the 
virtue  of  homogeneity  :  the  members  that  are  brought  into 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  239 

closest  association  must  be  people  of  similar  social  stand' 
ing,  income  and  standard  of  life.  These  conditions  are 
fairly  well  fulfilled  by  the  trade  union  of  the  old  type,  and 
the  trade  union  will  undoubtedly  persist,  retaining  as  its 
particular  functions  the  maintenance  of  the  employment 
bureau  and  benefit  system,  the  regulation  of  apprentice- 
ship and  industrial  education,  the  fixation  of  wages, 
hours  of  labor,  etc.  (/3)  For  the  settlement  of  demarca- 
tion disputes  and  for  wide  combination  in  strikes,  the 
trade  unions  will  undoubtedly  unite  in  industrial  federa- 
tions such  as  the  National  Structural  Trades  Alliance, 
designed  particularly  to  settle  demarcation  disputes. 
We  have  at  the  present  time  industrial  organizations 
varying  all  the  way  from  the  loosest  federations  to  the 
most  compact  amalgamations.  The  amalgamated  indus- 
trial union  will  probably  not  continue  as  such,  but,  like 
the  Typographical  Union,  will  divide  up  into  a  number 
of  trade  unions  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  widen 
out  into  a  larger  and  more  powerful  industrial  federation. 
Many  of  the  industrial  federations  of  the  present  day 
have  lacked  cohesion,  solidarity  and  authority.  This  will 
probably  be  remedied  by  giving  them  control  of  the  strike 
or  defense  funds.^  The  best  way  of  securing  the  power  of 
a  federation  is  to  invest  its  members  with  some  pecuniary 
motive  for  obeying  its  commands.  The  trade  union,  per- 
haps, will  not  be  absolutely  prevented  from  striking,  but 


^  A  fair  illustration  of  the  liind  of  industrial  organization  here  con- 
templated is  found  in  the  International  'Longshoreman,  Marine  andl 
Transport  Workers'  Association,  described  by  Mr.  Ethelbert  Stewart  la 
The  Commons  for  April,  1904. 


240  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

if  it  desires  assistance  or  strike  pay,  it  will  have  to  secure 
the  sanction  of  the  industrial  federation.  (  )  The  indus- 
trial federation  will  do  away  with  most  of  the  demarca- 
tion and  organization  disputes,  but  to  insure  the  speedy 
termination  of  all  jurisdiction  difficulties,  particularly 
territorial  disputes,  there  will  have  to  be  an  all-embracing 
general  federation,  fashioned  on  the  lines  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  but  courageous  enough  to  insist  that 
jurisdiction  disputes  be  settled  promptly,  either  by  volun- 
tary agreement  between  the  warring  unions,  or  by  com- 
pulsory arbitration  from  without.  Up  to  the  present 
time  the  American  Federation  has  scarcely  been  powerful 
enough  to  take  this  positive  stand,  and  its  attitude  towards 
jurisdiction  disputes  has  been  vacillating  and  incon- 
sistent. But  it  is  fast  acquiring  the  necessary  power,  and 
at  an  early  date  it  will  undoubtedly  be  forced,  in  behalf  of 
the  good  repute  of  trade  unionism  in  general,  to  take  a 
positive  stand  on  this  matter.  Recalling  the  various 
municipal,  state  and  legislative  federations  now  in  exist- 
ence, and  the  possibility  of  auxiliary  political  organiza- 
tions of  laborers,  it  appears  that  the  ultimate  structure  of 
trade  unionism  will  probably  be  exceedingly  complex, 
composed  of  a  number  of  cross-cutting  federations,  each 
distinct  and  independent,  but  all  of  them  formed,  as  it 
were,  of  the  same  material. 

7.  The  Economic  Justification  of  Labor  Organization: 
It  is  often  stated  that  the  political  economy  of  the  past 
was  * '  against  the  trade  union. ' '  There  is  more  error  than 
truth  in  the  statement.     The  majority  of  economists  have 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND  ASSOCIATIONS  241 

never  been  ' '  against  the  union, ' '  and  to-day  professional 
economists  are  practically  unanimous  in  maintaining  the 
usefulness  and  even  the  necessity  of  rationally  conducted 
unions.  The  explanation  of  their  attitude  is  found  in  a 
general  recognition  of  the  fact  that  free  competition  in 
the  purchase  and  sale  of  labor  is  ordinarily  restricted  and 
in  many  cases  practically  suppressed  by  custom,  igno- 
rance, immobility  of  labor  and  a  number  of  other  famil- 
iar conditions;  so  that  the  price  of  labor  does  not  even 
tend  to  be  definitely  fixed  at  a  particular  point,  as  is  the 
price  of  certain  staple  commodities.  In  other  words  the 
bargain  between  the  employer  and  the  laborer  is  indeter- 
minate so  far  as  the  semi-impersonal  or  objective  forces 
of  the  market  are  concerned,  and  consequently  within 
certain  limits  the  seller  will  get  more  or  less  according  as 
his  power  of  higgling  is  great  or  little. 

Precisely  how  these  limits  are  fixed  which  enclose  the 
"debatable  land"  where  higgling  reigns  supreme,  it  is 
impossible  to  describe  in  a  few  sentences.  With  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  terms,  however,  it  is  not  misleading 
to  say  that  under  ordinary  circumstances  the  minimum 
wage  of  the  laborer  will  be  determined  by  the  standard  of 
life  of  his  time  and  trade.  A  skilled  electrician  will  not 
work  at  his  trade  for  the  wages  of  a  day  laborer :  he  will 
prefer  to  walk  the  streets  or  do  the  work  of  a  day  laborer. 
On  the  other  hand  the  maximum  limit,  the  highest  offer 
of  the  employer,  can  not  exceed  the  net  value  which  the 
laborer  is  capable  of  adding  to  the  output  of  the  estab- 
lishment. In  other  words,  the  upper  limit  is  fixed  by  the 
16 


242  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

productivity  of  the  worker.  Of  course,  the  minimum 
selling  price  of  the  laborer  is  not  fixed  and  rigid.  It  may 
be  subtly  depressed  in  a  long  period  of  years  by  continual 
hard  times  and  an  insidious  undermining  of  the  standard 
of  living.  Nevertheless  at  any  given  time  it  is  a  very  real 
and  very  important  barrier  against  gross  reduction  of 
wages.  So  also,  the  productivity  of  the  laborer  is  meas- 
ured not  by  his  gross  output,  but  by  his  gross  output 
minus  a  fair  allowance  for  the  other  factors  of  production, 
and  in  particular  a  fair  profit  for  the  employer.  By 
*  *  fair  profit ' '  we  mean  simply  that  amount  of  gain  or  rec- 
ompense that  under  existing  conditions  is  required  to 
keep  the  employer  in  the  business  and  induce  him  to 
replenish  plant  and  capital  as  they  are  exhausted  by  time 
and  use. 

There  is  then  an  indeterminate  share  in  the  product  of 
industry  which  goes  to  the  factor  possessing  the  great- 
est bargaining  power.  Successful  bargaining  depends 
largely  upon  two  attributes,  commercial  instinct  in  esti- 
mating the  highest  bid  that  your  antagonist  can  make, 
and  the  material  power  of  holding  out  until  he  is  forced 
to  make  that  bid.  It  needs  no  discussion  to  show  that  the 
isolated  laborer  is  woefully  lacking  in  both  these  attri- 
butes. He  does  not  know  what  the  employer  can  afford  to 
bid,  and  his  material  wants  are  so  pressing  that  he  can  not 
afford  to  hold  out  until  the  employer's  most  liberal  terms 
are  forthcoming.  "In  the  long  run,"  said  Adam  Smith, 
**the  workman  may  be  as  necessary  to  his  master  as  his 
master  is  to  him,  but  the  necessity  is  not  so  immediate." 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  243 

These  facts  are  generally  accepted  as  sufficient  proof 
of  the  necessity  of  combination  among  workingmen. 
They  must  select  their  keenest  representatives  to  do  their 
bargaining— that  is  to  say,  they  must  have  business 
agents,  walking  delegates ;  they  must  accumulate  reserve 
funds  whereby  to  support  themselves  during  those  pro- 
tracted ' '  try-outs ' '  which  are  necessary  to  bring  stubborn 
bargainers  to  an  agreement— that  is  to  say,  they  must 
have  insurance  and  strike  funds,  or  some  equivalent.  Tq 
elevate  the  upper  wage  limit,  they  must  improve  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  the  worker  by  education,  increased 
leisure  and  all  the  devices  that  make  for  greater  efficiency ; 
to  strengthen  the  low^er  limit,  they  must  give  definiteness 
and  tenacity  to  the  vague  standard  of  life,  by  adopting 
"common  rules  respecting  wages,  hours  of  labor,  etc. ;  and, 
finally  to  protect  themselves  against  unhealthful  fac- 
tories, dangerous  machinery,  and  other  evil  conditions  of 
employment,  they  must  secure  legislation  regulating  these 
multifarious  details,  about  which  it  is  hopeless  for  the  in- 
dividual laborer  to  even  think  of  bargaining,  and  which, 
because  of  the  necessities  of  industrial  competition,  are 
best  remedied  by  wide,  uniform  rules  affecting  all  pro- 
ducers alike. 

At  any  given  time  then,  the  labor  union  has  a  useful 
and  necessary  function  to  perform  in  strengthening  the 
bargaining  power  of  the  laborer.  It  is  obvious,  however, 
that  the  good  which  the  labor  organizations  can  accom- 
plish by  collective  bargaining,  will  be  indefinitely  multi- 
plied when  they  cooperate  in  elevating  the  limits  within 


244  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

which  bargaining  operates,  by  raising  the  standard  of  ef- 
ficiency of  the  laborer,  facilitating  the  invention  and  in- 
troduction of  labor-saving  devices,  and  maintaining  that 
security  and  tranquillity  which  are  conducive  to  the  free 
investment  of  capital.  Per  contra,  the  good  effects  of  col- 
lective bargaining  may  plainly  be  negatived  by  resisting 
the  introduction  of  machinery,  by  undermining  the  stand- 
ard of  efficiency  through  underhand  restriction  of  output, 
by  harassing  and  intimidating  capital  through  needless 
strikes,  violence  or  petty  opposition,  or  by  monopolistic 
restriction  of  numbers  which  aims  to  increase  wages  in  one 
trade  by  decreasing  the  normal  supply  of  labor. 

The  trade  union  to  be  successful  does  not  need  to  be 
monopolistic.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  best  and  most  suc- 
cessful trade  unions  are  those  that  are  least  monopolistic 
in  their  methods  and  policies.  Above  all  else  it  should  he 
noted  that  a  vitally  important  distinction  exists  between 
monopoly  and  monopolistic  methods.  The  smallest,  mean- 
est and  most  insignificant  labor  unions  are  often  the  most 
exclusive  and  most  monopolistic  in  their  methods ;  while 
great  national  organizations,  like  the  Brotherhood  of  Lo- 
comotive Engineers,  which  have  succeeded  in  attracting 
into  their  ranks  practically  all  the  workers  of  a  given 
trade  in  the  country,  frequently  thrive  and  flourish  with 
the  broadest  and  most  tolerant  policies.  Combination, 
then,  may  be  useful,  even  though  it  be  not  complete ;  and 
complete  combinations  are  not  to  be  condemned  merely 
because  they  are  potential  monopolies.  In  labor  as  well  as 
in  industrial  combinations,  it  is  monopolistic  action  and 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  245 

not  potential  monopoly,  that  requires  suppression  by  law 
and  public  opinion.  "^ 

8.  Methods  and  Policies:  The  most  superficial  exam- 
ination of  labor  organizations  as  they  now  exist,  is  suffi- 
cient to  show  that  many  of  them  do  thrive  without  any- 
thing approaching  a  complete  combination  of  the  workers 
in  their  respective  trades.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  just  as 
evident  that  practically  every  trade  union,  like  every 
trust,  is  anxious  and  eager  to  effect  a  complete  combina- 
tion. The  reason  is  evident.  The  first  and  most  essential 
function  of  the  labor  organization,  as  has  been  shown,  is 
collective  bargaining;  and  the  ease  and  effectiveness  of 
collective  bargaining  increase  directly  with  the  proportion 
of  effective  competitors  included  in  the  combination. 
Without  dwelling  upon  these  obvious  facts,  we  may  pass 
to  the  methods  by  which  labor  organizations  attempt  to 
make  their  combinations  complete. 

(a)  Inclusive  Methods:  The  most  natural  way  to  estab- 
lish complete  control  is  to  induce  all  the  workers  in  the 
trade  to  join  the. union ;  and  the  great  majority  of  Amer- 
ican unions  prosecute  this  work  vigorously  and  inces- 
santly. In  inducing  non-union  men  to  enter  the  fold  both 
persuasion  and  coercion  are  used.  The  coercive  action 
i^:presses  itself  generally  in  the  familiar  strike  or  boycott 
against  the  employment  of  non-union  men.  The  justifi- 
cation of  this  attitude  has  been  discussed  in  the  chapter 
on  strikes.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  feeling 
against  the  non-unionist  is  as  universal  as  it  is  deep ;  that 
nearly  all  unions  oppose  the  employment  of  non-union 


246  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

men  by  evei'y  legitimate  means  within  their  power,  and 
that  the  ' '  closed  shop, ' '  either  as  a  practical  rule  of  action, 
or  an  immediate  ideal,  is  deliberately  sanctioned  by  an 
enormous  majority  of  trade  unionists.  The  persuasive 
work,  on  the  other  hand,  takes  the  form  of  systematic 
organization,  for  which  large  sums  are  expended.  Thus 
the  United  Mine  Workers,  in  1902,  kept  twenty  salaried 
organizers  in  the  field  in  addition  to  a  large  number  of 
special  organizers  who  were  paid  a  special  fee  for  every 
local  which  they  organized.  The  American  Federation  of 
Labor  employs  a  much  larger  force  of  organizers,  and 
almost  all  the  national  unions  have  at  least  one  officer  who 
is  specially  charged  with  this  work,  frequently  the  vice- 
president.  In  criticising  the  monopolistic  spirit  of  trade 
unions,  then,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  great 
majority  of  unions  maintain  an  attitude  of  cordial  invita- 
tion to  the  qualified  workers  in  their  respective  trades. 

(b)  Exclusive  MetJiods:  The  completion  of  a  combina- 
tion may  evidently  be  facilitated  by  reducing  the  number 
of  workers,  and  in  consequence  most  unions  supplement 
their  "cordial  invitation  to  join"  with  certain  measures 
which  in  one  way  or  another  tend  to  reduce  the  number  of 
capable  craftsmen.  These  measures  fall  naturally  into 
two  groups,  those  regulating  the  entrance  to  the  trade, 
and  those  restricting  the  membership  of  particular 
unions.     It  is  necessary  to  consider  these  in  some  detail. 

(1).  Entrance  to  the  Trade.  Trade  unions  endeavor 
to  regulate  the  entrance  to  the  trade  in  a  variety  of  ways. 
Occasionally,  but  very  occasionally,  they  enforce  rules 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND    ASSOCIATIONS  247 

concerning  promotion  or  progress  within  the  trade. 
Similarly,  one  or  two  trades  attempt  to  prohibit  or  at  least 
discourage  the  employment  of  women,  as  do  the  Uphol- 
sterers, who  forbid  their  members  to  work  in  any  shop 
that  employs  women  except  as  seamstresses.  But  for  the 
most  part,  the  trade  unions  have  frankly  accepted  the 
general  employment  of  women  as  inevitable,  and  are  now 
bending  their  energies  to  the  organization  of  women,  so 
that  where  they  compete  directly  with  men,  they  will  be 
governed  by  the  same  standard  rates  and  common  rules. 
The  important  policies  in  this  connection  deal  with  the 
regulation  of  apprenticeship. 

The  general  facts  with  regard  to  the  regulation  of 
apprenticeship  are  discussed  in  Chapter  XI,  where  it  is 
pointed  out  that  except  in  a  few  trades  the  regulation  of 
•  apprenticeship  by  the  union  is  a  failure.  This  failure  is 
probably  a  good  thing  from  the  standpoints  both  of  the 
trade  union  and  the  general  public.  The  apprentice 
regulations  are  not  framed  with  the  prime  object  of  im- 
proving the  industrial  education  of  the  young  workman, 
and  they  have  no  general  effect  in  suppressing  boy  labor 
or  preventing  the  replacement  of  adult  workers  by  chil- 
dren, because  when  boys  are  prevented  from  learning  in 
the  few  union  shops  in  which  apprenticeship  is  regulated, 
they  simply  press  into  the  non-union  shops  and  the  unor- 
ganized trades.  The  limitation  of  child  labor  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  general  legislation,  in  the  enforcement  of 
which,  however,  the  trade  unions  might  be  far  more  help-', 
ful  than  they  now  are.     Again,  the  few  unions  which 


248  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

have  acquired  sufficient  power  to  regulate  apprenticeship, 
often  display  a  strong  disposition  to  restrict  unduly  the 
number  of  apprentices.  With  an  apprenticeship  term  of 
three  years  and  an  allowance  of  one  apprentice  to  ten 
journeymen,  the  present  force  of  journeymen  would 
gradually  die  out,  since  the  average  \rorking  period  of  the 
laborer  is  certainly  less  than  thirty  years.  Finally,  and 
this  fact  seems  conclusive,  the  regulation  of  apprentice- 
ship is  not  necessary  to  the  successful  working  of  a  trade 
union.  In  England,  the  cotton  and  coal  mining  indus- 
tries may  be  cited  as  examples  of  "open  trades"  in  which 
the  unions  are  unusually  successful,  while  in  the  United 
States  the  railway  brotherhoods,  the  United  Mine  Work- 
ers, the  Carpenters  and  Joiners,  and,  in  fact,  most  of  the 
large  unions,  are  in  practice,  if  not  in  theory,  completely 
"open." 

(2).  Restriction  of  Membership.  Trade  unions  not 
only  attempt  to  restrict  the  entrance  to  the  trades,  but 
they  sometimes  restrict  the  entrance  to  the  unions,  and  as 
the  locals  in  nine  unions  out  of  ten,  perhaps,  have  com- 
plete autonomy  with  respect  to  the  admission  of  new 
members,  this  exclusiveness  may  become  as  complete  as 
the  local  unions  desire.  The  legislation  of  the  national 
unions,  however,  throws  some  light  upon  the  general  atti- 
tude of  trade  unionists  towards  this  subject.  Of  94 
national  unions  which  the  writer  has  investigated,  20  have 
passed  no  provisions  relating  to  admission  of  members,  38 
provide  merely  that  the  applicant  must  ISe  a  competent 
workman,  18  require  that  the  applicant  shall  have  served 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  249 

in  the  trade  three  or  more  years,  15  require  a  similar  term 
of  two  years  or  less,  14  specifically  prohibit  the  admission 
of  employers,  foremen  or  other  persons  empowered  to  dis- 
charge workmen,  11  specifically  permit  their  election 
under  certain  conditions,  and  7  confine  the  membership  to 
wlwte  persons.  About  10  refuse  admission  to  workmen 
directly  interested  in  the  liquor  business,  4  explicitly  dis- 
avow discrimination  on  account  of  color  or  nationality, 
and  3  openly  discriminate  against  foreigners.  Thus  the 
American  Flint  Glass  Workers  charge  ordinary  entrants 
an  initiation  fee  of  $3,  but  foreigners  are  required  to  pay 
$50,  must  declare  their  intention  to  become  citizens,  and 
can  be  elected  only  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  whole  mem- 
bership. A  few  local  unions  such  as  the  Marble  Workers 
and  Marble  Polishers  of  New  York  City  restrict  the  mem- 
bership by  charging  an  excessive  membership  fee,  $100  in 
these  cases.  With  respect  to  tendencies,  the  writer's 
opinion  is  that  the  admission  of  employers,  the  imposition 
of  excessive  entrance  fees,  and  the  discrimination  against 
foreign  unionists,  are  usually  condemned  and  are  gener- 
ally decreasing,  but  that  the  movement  is  towards  the 
segregation,  if  not  towards  the  greater  exclusion,  of  negro 
workmen. 

The  eases  are  rare  in  which  a  union  deliberately  refuses 
to  receive  a  body  of  competent  workmen,  and  then  boy- 
cotts them  as  "scabs."  As  a  rule  they  can  only  occur 
when  a  national  or  local  union  has  made  some  arrange- 
ment with  employers  by  which  the  latter  agree  to  employ 
none  but  union  men,  and  the  exclusion  can  be  successfully 


250  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

maintained  only  so  long  as  the  employers  abide  by  this 
arrangement.  As  employers  are  usually  very  anxious  to 
become  independent  of  any  particular  union,  and  as  the 
sympathy  of  the  trade  union  world  is  generally  with  any 
body  of  capable  workmen  who  desire  to  become  unionists 
and  are  refused  the  opportunity,  this  policy  is  usually 
found  in  practice  to  be,  as  one  would  expect,  suicidal. 

(3).  The  New  Trades  Combination.  Occasionally, 
however,  employers  enter  heartily  into  this  policy  of 
exclusion  and  attempt  to  found  an  industrial  monopoly 
on  the  basis  of  a  labor  monopoly.  Joint  monopolies  of 
this  kind  were  introduced  in  the  Birmingham  bedstead 
trade  about  1890,  but  have  just  begun  to  attract  attention 
in  the  United  States.  The  scheme  as  it  was  formally 
worked  out  in  Birmingham,  centered  around  a  joint 
wages  board  composed  of  representatives  from  an  em- 
ployers' association  and  representatives  from  a  union  of 
the  operatives  in  the  industry.  Prices  for  the  whole 
industry  were  to  be  fixed  by  this  board,  and  wages  were  to 
vary  directly  with  prices,  although  not  in  the  same  pro- 
portion. The  employers'  association  agreed  to  employ 
none  but  union  workmen,  and  the  operatives'  union 
agreed  to  work  for  no  manufacturer  who  refused  to  abide 
by  the  official  price  list.  It  was  an  alliance,  offensive  and 
defensive,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Standard  Wage  and 
the  Standard  Price.  The  New  Trades  Combination,  as  it 
was  called  by  the  author  of  the  scheme,  was  adopted  in  a 
number  of  Birmingham  industries,  but  has  recently  been 
abandoned  in  all  but  two  unimportant  industries,  because 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  251 

of  the  expense  of  paying  wages  to  the  idle  workmen  of 
recalcitrant  employers  who  refused  to  abide  by  the  official 
price  list. 

One  of  the  most  instructive  attempts  to  establish  an 
industrial  monopoly  upon  a  labor  monopoly  is  found  in 
the  American  window  glass  industry.  Some  years  ago 
the  Window  Glass  Workers'  Association,  by  rigidly 
restricting  the  number  of  apprentices  and  imposing  a 
prohibitive  entrance  fee  upon  foreigners  entering  the 
Association,  had  so  reduced  the  number  of  proficient 
workmen  in  the  country  that  there  were  not  enough  to 
man  the  existing  plants.  To  monopolize  the  glass  manu- 
facture of  the  country,  the  manufacturers  had  only  to 
secure  control  of  the  labor  supply,  and  this  the  American 
Window  Glass  Company  attempted  to  do  by  paying  high 
wages  and  agreeing  to  employ  none  but  union  men.  But 
independent  companies  immediately  sprang  up,  manned 
partly  by  imported  Belgians,  and  partly  by  members  of 
the  union.  Under  these  circumstances  the  Company  was 
enabled  to  run  only  about  one-half  of  its  aggregate  plant 
for  eight  months  during  the  year.  In  order  to  obtain  the 
full  supply  of  labor  the  Company  offered  the  union  a 
block  of  stock  worth  about  $150,000,  to  be  paid  for  by  the 
annual  dividends  declared  upon  it,  the  sole  condition 
being  that  the  Glass  Workers  should  assist  the  Company 
to  operate  its  plant  as  nearly  as  possible  to  its  full  capac- 
ity. The  dividends  were  being  steadily  paid  on  this  stock 
at  a  rate  which  would  have  made  it  the  property  of  the 
union  in  five  years.     After  the  agreement  had  been  in 


252  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

force  about  two  years,  however,  the  stock  was  withdrawn 
oy  the  Company  on  the  ground  that  the  workers  had  not 
complied  with  their  part  of  the  agreement,  or,  in  other 
words,  had  not  wholly  withdrawn  from  the  independent 
companies.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  withdrawal  of 
the  stock  came  just  as  glass  blowing  machines  were  being 
introduced  into  the  Company's  factories. 

Experience  shows  that  an  industrial  monopoly  based 
on  a  monopoly  of  the  labor  supply  is  peculiarly  weak. 
The  high  wages  inevitably  draw  to  the  trade  a  large  num- 
ber of  workmen,  who  either  are  taken  into  the  union  or 
refused  entrance.  If  taken  in,  they  must  be  supplied 
with  work,  and  this  brings  prices  and  wages  down  by 
increasing  the  output.  If  they  are  refused  admission, 
they  usually  set  up  a  rival  union  which  not  only  affords  a 
supply  of  labor  to  independent  manufacturers,  but  prob- 
ably secures  the  sympathy  and  support  of  the  trade  union 
world  at  large.  Such  a  combination  of  adverse  forces  is 
usually  too  strong  for  the  most  powerful  monopolies  of 
this  kind. 

(c)  Monopoly  and  Labor  Organization:  We  are  now  in 
a  position  to  draw  certain  conclusions  concerning  the  pol- 
icy of  the  closed  shop  and  labor  monopoly  in  general, 
(a)  Labor  monopolies  are  of  two  kinds,  inclusive  and 
exclusive ;  in  the  former  the  combination  is  maintained 
by  all  the  workmen  against  the  employers,  in  the  latter  it 
is  maintained  by  a  group  of  workmen  against  their  fellow- 
workmen.  Monopolies  of  the  second  class  are  short-lived 
and  relatively  infrequent.     (    )   In  combinations  of  the 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  253 

inclusive  type,  the  individual  member  is  compelled  to 
abide  by  the  common  rules  and  standard  terms  of  the 
union.  In  other  words  he  is  under  a  very  real  compul- 
sion. It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  intro- 
duction of  such  compulsion  deprives  the  individual 
laborer  of  any  real  freedom  of  bargaining.  In  entering 
such  a  combination,  the  workman  merely  exchanges  the 
compulsion  of  the  employer  (as  modified  by  demand  and 
supply)  for  the  compulsion  of  his  fellow- workmen  (as 
modified  by  demand  and  supply). 

(y)  The  justice  of  trade-union  policies  and  actions 
must  be  determined  in  accordance  with  their  intent  and 
reasonableness,  as  these  tests  are  applied  in  the  law  on 
strikes  and  in  the  judicial  determination  of  the  rates  and 
charges  of  quasi-public  monopolies.  Let  us  apply  this 
canon  concretely.  When  a  union  refuses  to  work  with 
non-union  men,  and  by  its  refusal  secures  their  discharge, 
the  justice  of  its  action  can  be  determined  only  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  particular  case.  Were  the  non- 
union men  prevented  from  joining  the  union  by  excessive 
initiation  fees  and  other  means  ?  If  so,  the  action  of  the 
unionists  must  ordinarily  be  interpreted  as  malicious  in 
the  extreme  and  highly  unjust.  Per  contra,  if  the  non- 
unionists  had  refused  to  join  the  union  and  were  selling 
their  labor  at  prices  insufficient  to  maintain  the  accus- 
tomed American  standard  of  living,  the  unionists  can  not 
be  blamed,  from  any  standpoint,  for  attempting  to  force 
these  competitors  to  adopt  their  own  standard  terms.  Or 
take  the  case  of  a  complete  combination  of  laborers,  who 


254  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

have  struck  for  an  increase  of  wages.  I  see  no  way  of 
determining  the  justice  of  their  position,  except  as  it  is 
determined  in  the  case  of  other  monopolies,  i.  c.  by  an 
examination  of  the  reasonableness  of  the  rate  or  wage 
which  they  have  fixed.  A  similar  procedure  is  recognized 
as  just  in  the  case  of  industrial  monopolies  such  as  rail- 
roads, and  if  the  law  is  to  permit  the  formation  of  labor 
monopolies,  it  must  provide  that  protection  for  the  gen- 
eral public  which  alone  makes  monopoly  tolerable.^ 

In  short,  the  justice  of  the  general  policy  of  the  closed 
shop  can  only  be  decided  by  the  ultimate  objects  and  gen- 
eral character  of  the  trade  union  which  pursues  that 
policy.  The  policy  of  the  closed  shop  makes  for  wider 
combination,  wider  combination  means  greater  power, 
and  greater  power  is  desirable  or  undesirable  as  it  is 
wisely  or  unwisely  used.  Monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the 
Locomotive  Engineers  has  worked  little  but  good ;  in  the 
hands  of  the  Window  Glass  Workers  it  was  violently 
abused.  The  critic  answers,  perhaps,  that  the  policy  of 
the  closed  shop  deprives  men  of  their  "sacred  right"  to 
work,  and  suggests  that  the  judgment  in  accordance  with 
intent  is  vague  and  impracticable.  The  writer  replies 
that  the  condemnation  of  the  policy  would  deny  other 
men  their  equally  "sacred  right"  of  refusing  to  work, 
and  points  out  that  as  necessity  has  forced  our  courts  to 

*  We  are  dealing  here  with  the  abstract  Justice  of  union  policies,  with 
the  view  to  the  formiitlon  of  a  rational  public  opinion.  From  the  legal 
standpoint  our  arfxurnpnt  loads  directly  to  something  very  akin  to  com- 
pulsory arbitration.  And  that  is  exactly  what  we  now  have  In  indus- 
trial monopolies,  where  the  quarrel  is  between  the  employer  and  the 
consumer,  not  between  the  employer  and  the  laborer. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  955 

judge  strikes  in  accordance  with  their  intent,  and  restraint 
of  trade  in  accordance  with  its  reasonableness,  so  neces- 
sity is  forcing  us  now  to  judge  trade  unions  in  accordance 
with  their  objects,  and  the  acts  of  labor  monopolies  in 
accordance  with  their  reasonableness.  Combination  is 
the  order  of  the  day ;  it  can  be  regulated,  but  not  extir- 
pated ;  it  is  a  menace  only  when  it  is  violent,  extortionate 
or  unreasonable. 

(d)  Regulation  of  ^yages.  It  is  frequently  asserted  by 
critics,  and  the  charge  is  perhaps  the  most  serious  that 
can  be  directed  against  labor  organizations,  that  the  whole 
tendency  of  the  latter  is  to  stifle  competition,  and  that  by 
their  insistence  upon  a  standard  rate  of  wages  in  particu- 
lar, they  reduce  to  one  dead  level  the  efficient  and  the 
inefficient  workman,  and  thus  interfere  with  the  competi- 
tive struggle  for  existence  upon  whose  continued  opera- 
tion progress  depends.  To  this  charge  the  defendants  of 
organized  labor  answer  emphatically  that  the  union  rate 
of  wages  is  always  a  minimum,  never  a  maximum  rate, 
and  that  the  stubboi'n  maintenance  of  this  minimum  does 
not  suppress  competition  for  employment,  but  meraly 
improves  its  character.  ''All  that  it  does  is  to  transfer 
the  pressure  from  one  element  in  the  bargain  to  the  other 
— from  the  wage  to  the  work,  from  price  to  quality.  *  * 
If  the  conditions  of  employment  are  unregulated,  it  will 
frequently  pay  an  employer  not  to  select  the  best  work- 
man, but  to  give  the  preference  to  an  incompetent  or 
infirm  man,  a  'boozer'  or  a  person  of  bad  character,  pro- 
vided that  he  can  hire  him  at  a  sufficiently  low  wage,  make 


256  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

him  work  excessive  and  irregular  hours,  or  subject  him  to 
unsanitary  or  dangerous  conditions.  If  the  employer 
can  not  go  below  a  common  minimum  rate,  and  is  untvble 
to  grade  the  other  conditions  of  employment  do^vn  to  the 
level  of  the  lowest  and  most  necessitous  wage-earner  in  his 
establishment,  he  is  economically  compelled  to  do  his 
utmost  to  raise  the  level  of  efficiency  of  all  his  w'orkere 
so  as  to  get  the  best  possible  return  for  the  fixed  con- 
ditions."^ 

The  argument  that  the  union  rate  and  other  common 
rules  do  not  operate  to  suppress  competition,  but  merely 
to  improve  its  character,  holds  good  whether  the  union 
wage  be  a  minimum  or  a  uniform  rate,  and  appears  to  be 
as  unanswerable  as  it  is  important.  But  the  assertion 
that  the  union  rate  is  a  minimum  and  not  a  uniform  rate 
is  only  partially  true.  That  it  is  partially  true  appears 
from  the  facts  that  a  large  number  of  unions  do  not  object 
to  piece  work,  and  in  a  few  of  the  older  and  more  power- 
ful organizations,  such  as  the  printers'  and  iron  workers* 
unions,  the  faster  and  more  skilled  workmen  often  receive 
extra  wages  with  the  full  acquiescence  of  their  fellow 
unionists.  That  it  is  partially  untrue  appears  from  the 
facts  that  a  large  number,  probably  a  majority,  of  the 
labor  leaders  strenuously  object  to  piece  work ;  that  except 
among  the  Coal  Hoisting  Engineers,  the  opposition  to  the 
grading  of  wages  is  practically  unanimous;  that  a  few 
unions  limit  the  amount  which  piece-workers  may  make 
in  a  day  or  week ;  and  that  a  few  other  unions  boldly  dis- 

» Webb,  Industrial  Democracy,  pp.  716,  717. 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  257 

courage  any  departure,  either  in  excess  or  defect,  from 
the  union  rate.  "This  Association,"  says  one  of  the 
by-laws  of  the  Journeymen  Stone  Cutters'  Association, 
"thoroughly  discourages  the  principle  of  more  than  one 
rate  of  wages. ' '  And  the  secretary  of  the  Stone  Cutters 
expressed  a  common  sentiment  when  he  wrote  to  the 
Industrial  Commission:  "If  a  man  is  known  to  accept 
pay  beyond  the  regular  rate  he  is  said  to  be  taking  blood 
money,  and  he  is  despised  as  much  as  a  man  who  works 
below  the  rate. ' ' 

"While  there  is,  thus,  no  unanimity  either  of  sentiment 
or  of  practice  in  this  matter,  the  most  impartial  investi- 
gators report  that  the  union  regulation  of  wages  does  tend 
to  produce  greater  uniformity.  But  they  qualify  their 
conclusion  by  calling  attention  to  the  following  facts: 
First,  the  union  rate  of  wages  is  usually  higher  than  the 
competitive  rate  would  be.  Consequently,  if  wages  are 
leveled,  they  are  leveled  up,  not  down,  so  that  the  earn- 
ings of  the  superior  workmen  are  not  reduced,  even 
though  the  earnings  of  the  inferior  workmen  are 
increased.  Secondly,  the  superior  workmen  are  employed 
more  regularly  than  the  unsatisfactory  workmen,  and  are 
likely  to  be  assigned  to  the  more  delicate  and  interesting 
work.  Finally,  union  regulation  does  not  eliminate  what 
may  be  called  the  normal  territorial  variation  of  wages. 
In  a  large  majority  of  American  unions  the  regulation  of 
wages  is  left  to  the  locals,  and  this  results  in  the  greatest 
diversity  of  rates.  In  1900,  for  example,  the  standard 
J7 


25S  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

rates  of  the  Operative  Plast«erers  varied  from  $1.75  to  $7 
a  da}-,  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States. 

"With  the  piece-system,  standard  rates  may  be  em- 
ployed without  leveling  wages,  and  the  unions  are  not 
uniformly  opposed  to  the  piece-system,  as  is  generally 
believed.  A  majority  of  trades  in  which  piece  work  is 
possible,  accept  that  system.  In  Great  Britain  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Webb  ascertained  that  out  of  111  unions  having 
1,003,000  members,  49  unions  with  573,000  members 
insisted  on  piece  work ;  24  unions  with  140,000  members 
willingly  recognized  piece  work ;  and  38  unions  with 
290,000  members  insisted  on  time  work.  In  the  United 
States  a  similar  investigation  was  made  by  the  Industrial 
Commission.  Out  of  50  important  unions  in  which  piece 
work  was  possible,  28  accepted  the  piece  system  in  some 
line  of  their  respective  trades  without  active  opposition, 
wdiile  22  unions  either  forbade  or  actively  opposed  the 
system. 

In  explaining  this  diversity  in  Great  Britain  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Webb  point  out  that  in  some  occupations  such  as 
spinning,  the  intensity  of  the  labor  is  determined  by  the 
employer  himself,  who  fixes  tke  speed  of  the  machinery. 
In  such  occupations  the  workers  insist  upon  piese  pay- 
ment in  order  to  prevent  forcing  and  over-exertion.  In 
other  occupations,  and  in  repair  work  generally,  it  is 
impossible  to  estimate  in  advance  either  the  skill  or  the 
time  that  will  be  required  on  the  job,  and  here  the  unions 
for  obvious  reasons  insist  upon  time  rates.  In  general, 
according  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb,  unions  accept  or  reiect 


URGANIZAnONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  259 

the  piece  system  according  as  their  work  can  or  can  not 
be  standardized.  That  is  to  say,  they  accept  it  when  it 
does  not  interfere  with  collective  bargaining.  It  is  doubt- 
ful, however,  whether  this  explanation  can  be  applied 
to  conditions  in  the  United  States.  Many  of  the  twenty- 
eight  American  unions  which  accept  the  piece  system  ^ 
without  active  protest,  refrain  from  protesting  merely 
because  protestation  appears  useless;  and  many  of  the 
twenty-two  unions  which  oppose  piece  payment,  could 
adopt  the  system  without  destroying  collective  bargain- 
ing. The  labor  leaders,  especially,  are  opposed  to  piece 
work.  "The  principal  officers  of  many  of  the  most  im- 
portant American  unions  whose  members  habitually 
work  by  the  piece,  would,  if  they  had  the  power,  instantly 
abolish  the  system. ' ' 

(e)  Hours  of  Labor:  The  labor  leaders  oppose  piece 
work  because  they  believe  that  if  workmen  toil  and  strain 
to  increase  their  earnings  by  this  system,  the  piece  rate 
will  inevitably  be  lowered,  so  that  eventually  the  work- 
man will  be  able  to  earn  with  the  increased  strain  and 
effort,  only  enough  to  maintain  him  in  his  accustomed 
style  of  living.  This  same  belief  in  the  controlling 
power  of  the  standard  of  living,  makes  the  regulation  of 
the  working  day,  in  the  opinion  of  many  labor  leaders,  the 
most  important  of  all  union  aims  and  policies.  "The 
most  progressive  leaders,  such  as  Mr.  Gompers  of  the  Fed- 
eration of  Labor,  are  constantly  urging  their  associates  to 
put  the  shorter  work  day  in  the  forefront  of  their  de- 
mands.    Organize  and  control  your  trade  and  shorten 


260  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

your  hours,  is  their  position,  and  wages  will  take  care  of 
themselves. '  '^ 

The  "normal  day,"  unlike  "the  standard  rate,"  is  a 
maximum,  not  a  minimum,  and  there  seems  no  uniform 
policy  with  respect  to  it  bej^ond  the  general  effort  to 
reduce  it  as  much  as  possible.  When  the  Cigar  Makers 
secured  the  eight  hour  day,  they  immediately  began  to 
discuss  the  six  hour  day.  When  the  German-American 
Typographia  secured  the  eight  hour  day,  they  followed  it 
up  with  a  five  day  week  in  certain  places.  Only  a  few 
national  unions  like  the  two  just  named  have  a  uniform 
working  day,  and  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of  labor  is 
for  the  most  part  left  to  the  local  union.  Overtime  is 
systematically  opposed.  One  or  two  vmions  forbid  it, 
except  in  cases  of  emergency,  but  the  usual  preventative 
is  found  in  demanding  extra  pay  for  overtime. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  centurj'-  men 
worked,  almost  universally,  from  sun  to  sun.  At  the 
present  time,  many  important  trades  work  only  eight 
hours  a  day,  and  the  average  working  day,  excluding 
agricultural  and  domestic  labor,  is  probably  less  than  ten 
hours.  This  great  reform  is  a  distinctive  accomplishment 
of  organized  labor,  and  in  the  past  it  has  met  with  the 
endorsement  of  the  disinterested  economist  as  well  as  that 
of  the  labor  leader  himself.  Both  justify  the  movement 
on  the  grounds  that  it  will  give  the  worker  more  time  for 
rational  amusements,  educational,  civic  and  family  duties, 

^Report  of  the  In.  Com.,  Vol.  XVII.  p.  xlvii.  The  writor  takes  this 
opportunity  of  .Tcl<nowlpdginj:  his  ponenil  indebtpdness  to  this  alto- 
gether admirable  description  of  American  labor  organizations. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND    ASSOCIATIONS  261 

and  that  this  increased  leisure  will  result  in  a  more  intel- 
ligent, contented  and  efficient  working  population.  Both 
agree  moreover  that  in  the  long  run  and  within  reasonable 
limits  wages  are  strongly  affected  by  the  standard  of  life, 
and  that  a  tenacious  refusal  to  work  an  excessive  number 
of  hours  will  to  a  degree  remove  the  necessity  for  it.  But 
here  the  average  economist  and  the  average  trade  unionist 
part  company.  The  former  defends  reduction  of  hours 
under  present  conditions  because  he  believes  that  it  will 
not  diminish  the  product  of  industry ;  whereas  the  labor 
leader  advocates  persistent  and  radical  reductions  pre- 
cisely because  he  believes  that  it  will  diminish  the  product 
per  individual,  and  furnish  work  for  the  unemployed. 
' '  The  idea  that  a  man  will  produce  as  much  in  eight  hours 
as  in  ten  may  occasionally  be  advanced  by  labor  leaders, 
but  it  is  not  their  general  position ;  and  even  if  one  does 
advance  it  he  is  likely  to  bring  forward  in  the  next  para- 
graph ideas  that  are  entirely  inconsistent  with  it.  The 
argument  which  really  carries  weight  with  them  is  based 
on  the  opposite  idea.  It  is  that  the  reduction  of  hours 
will  reduce  the  supply  of  labor  power  in  the  market,  and 
so  will  raise  its  price.  It  will  make  room  for  the  unem- 
ployed, and  so  will  remove  the  depressing  influence  of 
their  competition. 

'Whether  you  work  by  the  piece  or  the  day, 
Decreasing  the  hours  increases  the  pay,' 

is  a  constantly  reiterated  expression  of  the  current  creed 
of  the  union  leaders. '  '^ 

^  Meport  of  the  In.  Com.,  p.  xlvil. 


262  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

(f)  Attitude  towards  Machinery:  The  old  historical 
antipathy  to  labor  saving  machinery  still  persists  quite 
generally  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  trade  union 
world,  and  finds  occasional  expression,  for  example,  in  the 
successful  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  typesetting 
machines  in  the  Government  Printing  Office,  or  in  the 
working  rules  of  a  few  unions.  "What  is  known  as  a 
stone  pick,"  say  the  by-laws  of  the  Journeymen  Stone 
Cutters'  Union,  "is  not  a  stone  cutters'  tool,  and  this 
association  will  use  every  effort  to  discourage  its  use." 
.  .  .  "Planer  work,"  reads  the  twelfth  article  of  their 
constitution,  "will  not  be  permitted  to  be  shipped  into 
any  city  where  the  union  has  succeeded  in  abolishing 
them  [planers] . ' '  On  the  other  hand,  a  small  number  of 
unions  whose  members  work  by  the  piece,  actually  insist 
upon  the  introduction  of  the  most  efficient  machinery; 
and  the  more  advanced  leaders  generally  deprecate  the 
blind  opposition  to  labor  saving  devices.  "Useless 
labor,"  says  the  Secretary  of  the  United  Garment  Work- 
ers, "cannot  be  justified,  or  anything  which  curtails 
human  activity.  Economies  of  production  all  tend  to 
make  more  of  the  individual.  If  labor  saving  inventions 
are  used  as  a  means  of  oppression  it  would  be  wiser  to 
meet  the  situation  with  a  view  of  correcting  abuses  than 
to  deprive  ourselves  of  the  inestimable  advantages  they 
furnish. ' '  Speaking  generally,  the  great  mass  of  union- 
ists have  been  convinced  that  the  prolonged  resistance  to 
machinery  is  impossible,  and  that  the  real  function  of  the 
labor  union  is  to  regulate  its  introduction  so  that  it  will 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  263 

cause  as  little  distress  and  unemployment  as  possible 
Their  specific  policy  in  achieving  this  result  is  to  insist 
that  the  new  machines  be  manned  by  unionists,  not  by 
new  workers,  and  that  the  "machine  rates"  of  wages  be 
such  as  to  give  the  worker  some  small  share  in  the  in- 
creased profits  ordinarily  secured  by  its  introduction.* 

(g)  Restriction  of  Output:  Almost  every  device  of  the 
trade  union  limits  in  some  way  the  industrial  output. 
The  "New  Trades  Combination"  and  the  successful  re- 
striction of  the  entrance  to  the  trade,  limit  the  output  of 
the  whole  industry ;  the  reduction  of  hours,  the  penaliza- 
tion of  overtime,  the  prohibition  of  piece-work,  the  level- 
ing of  wages,  all  tend  to  reduce,  in  the  first  instance,  at 
least,  the  output  of  the  individual  worker.  In  addition 
to  these  methods,  the  output  of  the  individual  workers  is 
sometimes  directly  limited  by  other  means.  The  Litho- 
graphers, Machinists,  Pressmen  and  other  organizations 
limit  the  number  of  machines  which  a  man  may  tend. 
The  Stove  Mounters,  the  Flint  Glass  Workers,  the  Iron, 
Steel  and  Tin  Workers,  and  other  piece-working  trades, 
limit,  under  some  circumstances,  the  amount  of  wages 
which  may  be  earned  in  a  day.  The  direct  limitation  of 
earnings  is  rare,  but  the  hatred  of  "rushers"  or  pace- 
makers is  general,  and  occasionally  finds  formal  expres- 
sion, as  in  the  following  by-law  of  the  New  York  branch 
of  the  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters:  "Any  member  who 
does  an  unreasonable  amount  of  work,  or  who  acts  as 


^A  good  Illustration  of  the  application  of  this  policy  may  be  found 
In  the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission^  Vol.  VII,  p.  276  seq. 


264  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

leader  for  his  employer  for  the  purpose  of  getting  all  the 
work  possilile  out  of  the  men  working  in  the  same  shop  or 
job  with  him,  shall  be  fined  for  the  first  offence  $10 ;  for 
the  second  offence  he  shall  be  suspended  or  expelled. " 

In  the  past  the  instinctive  impulse  of  the  disinterested 
outsider  has  been  to  condemn  the  restriction  of  output, 
root  and  branch,  in  the  belief  that  it  penalizes  the  supe- 
rior Avorkman,  puts  a  premium  on  idling,  and  levels  nat- 
ural differences  of  skill  and  efficiency.  Undoubtedly 
many  of  these  policies  and  practices  are  vicious.  But  it 
is  coming  to  be  generally  realized  that  the  question  is  not 
so  simple  as  we  have  hitherto  assumed.  Thus,  the  most 
competent  investigators  sanction  the  statement  that  piece 
rates  are  influenced,  and  in  most  cases  consciously  deter- 
mined, by  reference  to  the  ordinary  time  rates  of  the  class 
of  workers  concerned,  so  that  the  attitude  of  the  trade 
unions  toward  overtime  is  perfectly  logical.  Again, 
closer  study  of  the  details  of  modern  industry  has  revealed 
the  fact  that  in  some  trades,  the  sweated  trades  especially, 
the  work  people  are  driven  to  work  beyond  their  strength 
by  ''rushers"  and  "leaders,"  by  the  ''minute"  and 
"task"  systems,  and  other  semi-disreputable  devices. 
Furthermore,  it  has  been  realized  that  in  time  work,  coL 
iective  bargaining  does  necessitate  some  open  regulation 
of  the  "pace,"  because  one  workman  may  as  easily  under- 
bid  another  by  working  harder  in  the  normal  working 
day,  as  by  accepting  a  lower  wage.  The  arguments  of  the 
trade  unionists  are  not  altogether  foolish  :  a?id  these  prac- 
tices cannot  be  condemned  off  hand  by  reference  to  somd 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  265 

broad  general  philosophy  of  life.  In  fact  it  may  be  laid 
down  as  a  safe  rule  that  the  legitimacy  of  these  policies 
and  devices  can  be  determined  only  in  specific  cases,  tak- 
ing into  account  not  only  the  requirements  of  the  indus- 
try, but  the  necessity  for  common  rules  and  the  strain 
imposed  by  the  care  of  the  machine. 

But  there  is  one  general  theory  that  would  seem  under 
almost  all  circumstances  to  call  for  instant  reprobation. 
The  theory  is  that  known  as  the  "lump-of-labor"  doc- 
trine, the  idea  that  there  is  a  given  amount  of  work  to  be 
performed  and  that  it  will  be  performed  irrespective  of 
cost,  so  that  a  w'orkman  can  directly  swell  the  amount  of 
employment  by  shirking  and  avoiding  just  as  much  work 
as  it  is  possible  to  avoid  Avithout  losing  his  job.  It  is 
unnecessary  formally  to  expound  the  fallacy  of  this  as  a 
permanent  policy,  although  too  much  of  the  philosophy  of 
the  trade  unionist  rests  upon  it.  Mr.  Henry  White,  for- 
mer secretary  of  the  United  Garment  Workers,  defines 
the  limits  of  its  truth  and  error  when  he  says,  ''It  is  cus- 
tomary in  English  factories  for  workmen  when  there  is  a 
shortage  to  share  the  work  with  one  another.  Where  this 
is  done  to  tide  over  a  slack  season  it  is  commendable,  but 
where  such  is  a  permanent  system  the  effect  is  de- 
moralizing. ' ' 

Whether  trade-unionism  really  stimulates  the  go-easy 
system,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  It  is  of  course  true  that 
the  evil  is  not  peculiar  to  trade-unionists.  No  classes  of 
labor  are  more  addicted  to  it  than  the  negroes  and  domes- 
tic servants,  yet  both  these  classes  are  unorganized.    More- 


266  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

over,  the  labor  leaders  generally  disavow  it,  and  the  rank 
and  file  are  ashamed  of  it  whenever  it  crops  ont.  Never- 
theless, the  practice  is  logically  justified  by  the  himp-of- 
labor  doctrine,  and  the  latter  is  undoubtedly  a  cherished 
belief  of  manj^  workmen.  But  whatever  the  attitude  of 
the  trade  union  there  can  be  but  one  verdict  upon  the 
stealthy,  underhand  "adulteration  of  labor"  that  goes 
with  this  theory.  Not  only  does  it  undermine  character 
and  destroy  industry,  but  it  stands  as  a  positive  hindrance 
to  collective  bargaining.  The  employer  who  accepts  the 
union  rate  of  wages  and  the  normal  working  day,  must 
under  these  conditions  get  the  benefit  of  the  full  and 
unrestrained  abilities  of  his  workmen,  or  be  forced  into  a 
position  of  unchangeable  hostility  to  trade  unionism. 
Fortunately,  the  more  advanced  labor  leaders,  who  are 
exercising  an  increasing  influence  in  the  determination 
of  trade-union  policy,  fully  realize  this  fact.  * '  So  far  as 
labor  leaders  are  concerned,"  says  Mr.  John  Burns,  "we 
are  all  strongly  opposed  to  the  restriction  of  production : 
we  are  all  in  favor  of  better  and  more  conscientious 
work. ' ' 

(h)  Strikes,  Boycotts  and  Arhitration :  The  general 
policy  of  the  trade  union  towards  strikes  and  boycotts  has 
already  been  indicated  in  some  detail.^  The  consistent 
policy  of  the  trade  unions  is  to  systematize  and  commer- 
cialize the  strike  and  boycott ;  they  introduce,  as  soon  as 
they  become  strong  enough,  a  fixed  and  formal  procedure 
which  the  locals  must  follow  in  declaring  strikes,  and  this 

^8ec  ante,  p.  18L 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  2G7 

tends  strong-ly  to  prevent  hasty  and  ill-advised  strikes; 
they  spend  large  sums  in  advertising  the  union  label  and 
disseminating  their  ''unfair  lists,"  and  have  made  some 
efforts— hitherto  rather  ineffectual— to  obtain  united 
action  on  the  part  of  all  labor  organizations  in  favor  of 
union  goods  and  against  unfair  firms ;  and  in  order  to 
provide  that  reserve  which  enables  a  bargainer  to  hold 
out  for  his  highest  terms,  the  larger  and  stronger  unions 
make  a  constant  effort  to  increase  their  strike  or  defence 
funds.  Thus  most  of  the  railway  brotherhoods  aim  to 
have  at  least  $100,000,  and  at  the  present  time  (1904) 
the  general  fund  of  the  Cigar  INIakers  International  con- 
tains about  $600,000,  and  that  of  the  United  Mine  Work- 
ers more  than  $1,000,000. 

There  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  old  and  well 
managed  unions  do  help  to  reduce  both  the  number  and 
the  violence  of  strikes.  It  is  a  common  observation,  how- 
ever, that  newly  formed  unions  are  prone  to  strike,  and 
the  extension  of  organization  may  be .  accompanied  by 
some  encouragement  of  the  strike  which  is  chargeable  to 
the  union  as  a  union.  The  grave  defect  of  American 
unions  in  this  matter  seems  to  lie  in  the  excessive  power 
granted  to  the  locals.  The  national  organizations  in 
which  a  local  may  be  forced  to  strike  against  its  will  num- 
ber not  more  than  ten  or  twelve,  and  in  only  three  or  four 
may  a  local  be  expelled  for  striking  against  the  decision 
of  the  national  officers.  The  United  Mine  Workers  is 
typical  in  this  respect.  In  this  organization  the  local  may 
not  strike  unless  it  obtains  the  consent  of  the  district 


268  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

officers  and  the  national  president,  or  in  case  they  dis- 
approve, the  higher  sanction  of  the  Executive  Board. 
But  the  only  penalty  for  an  infraction  of  the  above  rule 
is  found  in  the  short  regulation  that :  ' '  Any  local  striking 
in  violation  of  the  above  provisions  shall  not  be  sustained 
or  recognized  by  the  National  Officers. " 

A  large  majoritj^  of  the  national  unions  have  at  some 
time  given  formal  endorsement  to  the  principle  of  arbi- 
tration, and  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  wage-earners 
far  more  frequently  apply  to  arbitration  boards  for  a 
settlement  of  disputes,  than  do  the  employers ;  though 
occasions  might  be  cited  in  which  unions  have  refused  to 
arbitrate  with  as  flat  a  refusal  as  the  oft-cited  employer 
who  refuses  "because  there  is  nothing  to  arbitrate."  It 
is  doubtful,  however,  whether  these  expressions  are  to  be 
taken  as  endorsements  of  arbitration  or  of  collective  bar- 
gaining. The  trade  unions  are  passionate  advocates  of 
the  "sacred  right  to  quit  work,"  of  the  justice  and  effi- 
ciency of  the  strike,  and  this  being  true,  there  is  strong 
reason  to  believe  that  what  they  mean  to  endorse  is  collec- 
tive bargaining,  and  not  the  complete  decision  of  the 
terms  of  employment  by  outsiders.  Speaking  of  Great 
Britain,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  state  emphatically  that  this 
is  the  case,  and  that  the  principle  of  arbitration,  having 
been  found  inconsistent  with  collective  bargaining,  is  fast 
going  out  of  favor.  In  any  event  this  much  may  with 
certainty  be  said :  the  trade  unions  are  everywhere  prac- 
tically unanimous  in  opposition  to  compulsory  or  en- 
forced governmental  arbitration. 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  269 

(i.)  Insurance  Benefits.  The  lack  of  control  over  the 
local  union  which  characterizes  American  nationals,  is 
largely  due  to  their  lack  of  an  insurance  benefit  system. 
To  just  what  extent  insurance  is  provided  by  American 
unions,  it  is  impossible  to  say,  owing  to  the  absence  of 
data  upon  this  subject  from  the  local  unions.  But  an 
examination  of  96  national  unions  shows  that  wath  a  gen- 
erous interpretation  of  their  activities,  64  pay  strike 
benefits,  48  death  or  funeral  benefits,  22  sick  or  accident 
benefits,  5  unemployment  benefits,  and  2  superannuation 
benefits,  while  22  unions  make  no  provision  for  any  kind 
of  insurance.  The  railway  brotherhoods,  the  printers, 
the  cigar  makers,  the  carpenters  and  joiners  (the  British 
branch)  and  one  or  two  other  unions  have  strong  and 
adequate  systems  which  have  proved  of  immense  benefit 
to  them.  But  the  average  American  union  pays  only  a 
small  death  benefit  of  $75  or  $100,  and  an  inadequate 
strike  allowance — "usually  a  bare  subsistence  wage  from 
$4  to  $8  a  week" — which  is  frequently  not  paid  to  unmar- 
ried workmen  or  to  those  who  are  fortunate  enough  to 
have  a  little  bank  account.  Beyond  this,  the  American 
union  trusts  to  the  device  of  assessments  and  to  sympa- 
thetic assistance  in  event  of  strikes. 

In  Great  Britain,  mutual  insurance  has  always  been 
one  of  the  most  important  functions  of  the  trade  union, 
and  taking  one  year  with  another  the  British  unions  of 
to-day  spend  more  than  three  times  as  much  upon  friendly 
insurance  as  upon  general  administration  or  even  upon 
strikes  and  boycotts.     In  the  ten  years  1892-1901,   for 


270  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

example,  the  100  principal  unions  of  Great  Britain  ex- 
pended about  $75,000,000  (£15,127,629),  of  Avliich  20  per 
cent,  went  for  running  and  miscellaneous  expenses,  19  per 
cent,  for  dispute  or  strike  pay,  22  per  cent,  for  unemploy- 
ment benefits,  18  per  cent,  for  sick  and  accident  benefits, 
10  per  cent,  for  superannuation  benefits,  and  11  per  cent, 
for  funeral  and  other  benefits.  In  the  year  1901,  89  of 
the  100  unions  paid  funeral  benefits,  83  dispute  benefits, 
77  unemployment  benefits,  77  sick  or  accident  benefits, 
and  38  superannuation  benefits.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  benefit  system  will  ever  become  so  general  among 
American  unions. 

That  the  trade  union  can  get  along  without  a  formal 
benefit  system,  is  evident  from  the  American  experience, 
but  notwithstanding  this  possibility,  the  most  successful 
American  unions  do  as  a  rule  employ  the  system,  and  the 
most  intelligent  leaders  are  constantly  urging  the  unions 
to  expand  this  feature  of  their  work.  The  reasons  are 
evident.  Friendly  insurance  is  not  only  desirable  in 
itself,  but  it  attracts  the  best  class  of  workingmen,  the 
most  frugal  and  far-sighted,  and  keeps  them  in  the  union 
once  they  have  joined.  Moreover,  it  encourages  conserv- 
atism, and  a])ove  all  else  secures  the  obedience  of  indi- 
vidual members  and  constituent  unions,  for  neither  an 
individual  nor  a  union  will  recede  when  secession  means 
the  sacrifice  of  a  large  interest  in  the  insurance  funds. 

Except  in  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers, 
the  National  Association  of  Letter  Carriers,  and  possibly 
one  or  two  other  unions,  the  insurance  funds  are  not 


ORGANIZATIONS    AND   ASSOCIATIONS  271 

legally  or  necessarily  distinct  from  the  ordinary  assets 
of  the  union,  and  they  can,  consequently,  be  used  for  any 
purpose  which  the  union  approves.  It  is  this  distin- 
guishing feature  of  trade  union  insurance  that  makes  it 
such  a  powerful  auxiliary.  It  supplies  a  large  fund 
which  may  be  used  for  trade  or  militant  purposes,  and  it 
is  largely  because  of  their  fear  that  incorporation  would 
interfere  with  this  liberty,  that  the  trade  unions  are  so 
opposed  to  incorporation.  Of  course  all  this  tends  to 
make  union  insurance  bad  insurance,  as  such.  After 
having  faithfully  paid  his  assessments  for  years,  a  mem- 
ber of  a  trade  union  may  be  expelled  from  the  union  for  a 
trifling  infraction  of  rules,  or  may  see  the  insurance  funds 
dissipated  in  an  ill-advised  strike.  Nevertheless ,  the 
members  do  not  object  to  this  feature  of  the  benefit  sys- 
tem. And  there  is  something  to  be  said  of  union  benefits 
even  as  insurance.  Owing  to  the  strong  loyalty  of  union- 
ists, and  the  intimate  knowledge  which  the  members  of 
any  local  have  of  each  other's  affairs,  trade  unions  may 
successfully  supply  forms  of  insurance  which  private 
companies  can  not  manage.  Some  of  the  railroad  brother- 
hoods, for  instance,  pay  full  policies  (even  as  much  as 
$4,500)  not  only  upon  death,  but  upon  the  loss  of  a  hand, 
a  foot,  or  the  eyesight,  and  upon  total  disability  from 
Bright 's  disease,  paralysis,  and  other  diseases.  The  out- 
of-work  benefit  particularly  would  seem  impossible  for 
any  company  or  association  save  that  composed  of  the 
shopmates  and  associates  of  the  insured. 

9.     The  Incorporation  of  Labor  Organizations:     It  is 


272  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

very  evident  from  the  preceding  discussion  that  not  only 
the  attitude  of  the  labor  organization  towards  friendly 
insurance,  but  most  of  the  fundamental  principles  and 
policies  of  organized  labor,  are  determined  by  the  require- 
ments and  demands  of  collective  bargaining.  Collective 
action  is  the  soul  and  spirit  of  trade  unionism,  and  the 
most  public-spirited  men  in  all  walks  of  life  are  coming 
to  regard  it,  not  only  as  inevitable,  but  as  one  of  the  most 
promising  and  practicable  means  of  elevating  the  working 
classes.  But  collective  bargaining  may  be  carried  on  in 
very  different  ways.  When  a  body  of  ' '  wage-earners ' '  in 
secret  session  adopt  common  rules  respecting  wages  or 
hours,  and  sullenly  refuse  to  accept  anything  less  or 
different,  that  is  one  kind  of  collective  bargaining. 
When  they  meet  their  employers  in  friendly  conference, 
giving  and  taking,  recognizing  the  varying  needs  of 
industry,  and  modifying  their  common  rules  accordingly, 
that  is  another  and  a  vastly  better  and  more  elastic  kind 
of  collective  bargaining.  It  is  the  latter  kind  of  col- 
lective bargaining — known  as  the  joint  conference  or 
joint  agreement  system— which  the  disinterested  public, 
represented  by  the  Civic  Federation  and  other  agencies 
of  industrial  peace,  desire  so  earnestly  to  introduce  and 
extend. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the 
extension  of  the  joint  conference  system  has  been  the 
class  of  obstinate  employers  who  refuse  to  negotiate  with 
the  unions.  Many  of  these  employers  justify  their 
refusal  to  make  agreements  on  the  ground  that  thfiv  liave 


ORGANIZATIONS   AND   ASSOCIATIONS  273 

no  means  of  holding  the  organizations  to  their  promises. 
The  ordinary  trade  union,  they  say,  is  an  unincorporated 
association  which  has  no  legal  standing  and  can  not  make 
enforceable  contracts,  while  contracts  made  with  indivi- 
dual workmen  are  practically,  if  not  theoretically,  unen- 
forceable because  the  workman  ordinarily  has  no  property 
which  can  be  attached  for  damages.  This  statement  of 
facts,  it  may  be  said  in  passing,  is  perfectly  correct. 
Basing  their  appeal  upon  these  facts,  a  number  of  promi- 
nent writers  and  employers  have  earnestly  urged  labor 
organizations  to  incorporate,  on  the  grounds  that  incor- 
poration— with  its  accompanying  power  to  sue  and 
liability  to  be  sued — would  greatly  facilitate  collective 
bargaining,  and  in  addition  would  invest  labor  organi- 
zations with  that  legal  responsibility  for  their  actions 
which  ought  to  accompany  the  enormous  power  which 
they  wield.  There  is  a  note  of  criticism  in  much  of  this 
exhortation,  although  the  writers  who  urge  incorporation 
are  usually  friendly  to  organized  labor.  *' There  is 
to-day,"  says  Mr.  Gilman,  "a  crying  social  need  for  more 
responsibility  in  labor  disputes.  Incorporation  corre- 
sponds to  this  need.  When  the  trade  unions  repent  of 
their  illogical  and  immoral  unwillingness  to  become  incor- 
porated, and  take  their  right  position  as  corporations  in 
that  collective  bargaining  which  is  to  be  more  and  more 
the  custom  of  the  future,  the  prospect  for  industrial  peace 
will  be  much  brighter  than  it  is  to-day. '  '^ 


*N.  P.  Gilman,  Methods  of  Industrial  Peace,  p.  197. 
18 


274  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

The  labor  leader^  opposes  incorporation  on  a  number 
of  grounds.  He  believes  that  it  will  lead  to  litigation, 
and  he  fears  to  match  the  labor  organization  with  the 
employers'  association  in  litigation,  fears  because  he 
knows  that  the  best  legal  talent  of  the  country  is  closely 
affiliated  with  the  employers,  and  because,  in  his  opinion, 
the  courts  are  unconsciously  biassed  against  the  methods 
of  organized  labor.  He  fears,  also,  that  incorporation 
will  bring  a  loss  of  that  freedom  of  managing  the  insur- 
ance funds  which,  up  to  the  present  time,  has  been  such 
an  effective  aid  to  discipline.  He  is  afraid,  in  short,  that 
the  employers  will  trump  up  charges  against  the  unions, 
and  transfer  the  battle  of  capital  against  labor  to  the 
courts,  where  the  wage-earner  is  at  a  peculiar  disadvan- 
tage. Behind  his  opposition  to  incorporation,  as  behind 
the  advocacy  of  the  men  who  champion  incorporation,  is 
the  feeling  that  the  present  status  gives  a  minimum  of 
responsibility  with  a  maximum  of  power.  Until  the  Taff 
Vale  decision  of  1901,  the  great  majority  of  persons  un- 
doubtedly believed  that  an  unincorporated  labor  organ- 
ization could  not  be  sued. 

The  events  of  the  last  few  years  have  shown  that  this 
impression  was  wholly  erroneous.  An  unincorporated 
organization,  having  no  power  to  make  contracts,  can  not 
of  course,  be  sued  for  breach  of  contract.  This  truth  no 
one  denies.     But  it  by  no  means  follows  that  an  unincor- 


'  The  majority  of  labor  loaders  strongly  oppose  incorporation  at  pres- 
ent. See  the  Monthly  Review  of  the  National  Civic  Federation,  for 
April,  1003.  In  which  a  most  instructive  symposium  upon  this  subject 
la  presented. 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  275 

porated  organization  can  not  be  mulcted  in  damages  if  it 
sanctions,  abets  and  aids  the  commission  of  a  positively 
unlawful  act— a  breach  of  the  law  as  distinct  from  the 
breach  of  a  contract.  This  was  the  decision  of  the  House 
of  Lords  in  the  famous  Taff  Vale  case,  in  which  the  Taff 
Vale  Railway  Company  was  given  £23,000  damages 
against  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Railway  Servants 
for  persuading  and  intimidating  workmen  to  break  their 
contracts  with  the  railway,  and  aiding  and  abetting  acts 
of  violence  which  together  injured  the  railway  company 
in  the  amount  named. 

The  logic  of  the  court's  finding  is  unanswered  and 
unanswerable.  If  men  unite  to  break  the  law  and  injure 
third  parties,  they  are  liable  collectively  and  individually 
for  the  damage  which  they  have  wrongfully  done,  and  if 
the  organization  through  which  they  have  combined  to 
break  the  law,  possesses  a  general  fund,  the  damages  may 
be  collected  from  that  fund  if  this  method  of  collection  is 
surer  and  more  convenient  than  collection  from  the  indi- 
vidual members.  The  contention  of  the  labor  leaders  is 
that  the  men  were  liable  individually,  but  not  as  an  organ- 
ization, and  this,  as  w^e  have  said,  means  ordinarily  that 
no  damages  can  be  collected.  The  intrinsic  absurdity  of 
this  contention  appears  when  we  reflect  that,  if  it  be  cor- 
rect, men  will  only  have  to  combine  in  a  voluntary  organ- 
ization in  order  to  commit  actionable  wrongs  with  impu- 
nity, and  if  they  happen  to  have  a  little  money  individ- 
ually, it  is  only  necessary  to  invest  this  with  the  organi- 
zation in  the  form  of  an  old  age  annuity  or  friendly 


276  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

insurance  against  sickness  and  unemployment,  in  order 
to  put  their  individual  savings  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
law.  The  Lord  Chancellor  summed  up  the  whole  case  in 
five  lines  when,  in  announcing  the  decision  of  the  House 
of  Lords  in  the  Taff  Vale  case,  he  said :  "If  the  Legisla- 
ture has  created  a  thing  which  can  own  property,  which 
can  employ  servants,  which  can  inflict  injury,  it  must  be 
taken,  I  think,  to  have  impliedly  given  the  power  to  make 
it  sueable  in  a  court  of  law  for  injuries  purposely  done  by 
its  authority  and  procurement. ' ' 

The  general  principle  established  by  the  Tafif  Vale  ease 
Avould  seem  to  be  that  a  voluntary  association  of  men  can- 
not escape  collective  responsibility  for  their  acts  by 
simply  refusing  to  incorporate,  when  individual  respon- 
sibility is  practically  non-existent.  It  seems  impossible 
to  escape  the  conclusion  that  this  is  sound  law  every- 
where ;  and  in  New  York,  Connecticut,  ISIiehigan  and  New 
Jersey,  specific  statutes  have  been  passed,  making  volun- 
tary associations  liable  to  suit  in  the  name  of  their  officers. 
If  the  above  proposition  be  acce'pted,  it  follows  that  labor 
organizations  are  not  evading  their  just  obligations  and 
responsibilities  by  refusing  to  incorporate,  and  the  ease 
for  incorpoi'ation,  so  far  as  it  rests  upon  the  assumption 
that  they  are,  falls  to  the  ground.  Moreover,  Mr.  Henry 
"White  has  pointed  out,  in  his  contribution  to  the  sj^mpo- 
sium  cited  above,  that  in  the  one  trade  in  which  incorpo- 
rated unions  have  attempted  to  enforce  trade  agreements 
in  the  courts,  the  latter  have  quite  generally  refused  to 
enforce  them  against  the  employer  on  the  grounds  that 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  277 

they  (the  contracts)  were  obtained  under  duress,  and 
were  without  consideration,  {.  c.  the  union  did  not  under- 
take anything  which  the  court  would  regard  as  sufficient 
return  for  the  promises  and  agreements  of  the  em- 
ployer.^ 

The  objections  to  incorporation  which  have  just  been 
mentioned  could  be  remedied  by  a  special  incorporation 
act  providing  for  the  enforcement  of  joint  agreements  by 
the  courts.  But  incorporation  under  special  acts  the 
writer  also  regards  as  undesirable.  If  our  administra- 
tive officers  do  their  duty  and  employers  take  advantage 
of  their  existing  rights,  incorporation  is  not  needed  to 
insure  the  financial  responsibility  of  labor  organizations. 
Secondly,  to  state  seriatim  the  reasons  why  incorporation 
is  undesirable,  the  trade  unionist's  fear  of  litigation  is 
sound  and  justifiable,  not  because  the  courts  are  biased, 
but  because  litigation  is  a  costly  and  demoralizing  game 
which  workingmen,  of  all  men,  are  least  fitted  to  play 
successfully.  In  the  Taff  Vale  ease,  for  instance,  the 
Amalgamated  Society  of  Railway  Servants  paid  about 
$115,000  in  damages,  and  about  $135,000  more  in  costs 
and  fees.  Thirdly,  if  it  is  desirable  to  make  the  two  sides 
financially  responsible,  this  can  be  accomplished  by  post-  \ 
ing  a  bond  conditioned  upon  the  faithful  performance  of 
the  contract,  as  is  done  in  the  agreement  between  the 
Brooklyn  firm  of  Wichert  and  Gardiner  and  the  Inde- 


*  See  the  recent  New  York  case  of  Eden  r.  Silberberg,  89  App.  Div. 
259. 


278  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

pendent  Union  of  Shoe  Workers  of  Greater  New  York  and 
Vicinity.^  This  has  the  advantagre  of  bringing  all  claims 
for  damages  before  an  impartial  umpire,  and  not  before 
courts  which  the  workmen  distrust.  Finally,  and  this  is 
by  far  the  strongest  argument  against  incorporation,  it 
is  believed  by  those  men,  like  the  late  Senator  Hanna,  who 
have  had  the  most  experience  in  introducing  and  popu- 
larizing the  joint  conference  system,  that  the  liability  to 
be  sued  for  breach  of  contract  would  tend  to  prevent  the 
trade  unions  from  adopting  and  conscientiously  observ- 
ing these  agreements  with  employers. 

The  reasons  for  this  belief  are  largely  psychological, 
and  cannot  be  discussed  here  in  detail,  but  they  rest  in 
main  upon  the  feeling  that  the  introduction  of  legal  re- 
sponsibility would  tend  to  weaken  the  force  of  the  moral 
obligation.  With  the  trade  agreements  now  in  force,  the 
only  power  of  enforcement  lies  in  the  honor  and  con- 
science of  the  parties  themselves,  and  a  large  majority  of 
these  agreements  are  loj^ally  obeyed  in  spirit  as  well  as  in 
letter.  But  once  establish  a  legal  responsibility  and  a 
species  of  skill  will  be  cultivated  whose  value  will  lie  in  the 
ability  to  draw  breakable  contracts,  and  each  side— as- 
suming that  the  other  will  look  after  its  own  interests — 
will  feel  justified  in  taking  every  possible  advantage  that 
does  not  amount  to  an  open  breach  of  the  agreement.  And 
it  is  perfectly  easy  for  the  workingmen  to  take  this  advan- 
tage in  most  lines  of  work,  by  simple  ' ' soldiering. ' '     Such 


^  See  Sixtecnih  Annual  lUpnrt  of  the  fNcw  YorJ;)  Board  of  Mediation 
and  Arbitration,  p.  -0. 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  279 

bf  spirit  would  be  as  fatal  to  the  joint  agreement  system  as 
it  would  be  to  industry. 

10.  Employers'  Associations:  Before  closing  this 
chapter  and  entering  upon  a  discussion  of  the  means  by 
which  to  introduce  and  maintain  industrial  peace,  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  say  a  word  about  the  modern  employ- 
ers' association.  We  are  not  here  concerned  wnth  the  em- 
ployers' association  for  social  diversion  or  the  extension  of 
trade,  but  refer  only  to  the  combination  of  employers 
whose  principal  purpose  is  to  regulate  the  conditions  of 
employment,  and  which  is  best  viewed  as  the  natural 
check  and  balance  of  the  trade  union. 

Such  organizations  are  as  old  as  the  trade  union  itself ; 
but  in  England  and  the  United  States  employers'  associa- 
tions have  in  the  past  been  short  lived.  In  times  of 
great  activity  among  the  trade  unions,  competing  employ- 
ers would  forget  for  a  moment  their  own  rivalries,  unite 
their  strength  to  break  a  strike  or  crush  a  union,  and  when 
their  aim  was  accomplished,  dissolve  and  disappear  until 
a  similar  danger  called  them  into  existence  again.  But 
in  the  last  few  years  these  associations  have  acquired  a 
permanence,  a  self-consciousness,  a  perfected  organiza- 
tion and  a  numerical  strength  which  endow  them  with  a 
new  personality  and  an  augmented  importance.  In  a 
recent  publication  the  National  Association  of  Manufac- 
turers recorded  500  local  associations  in  the  United  States, 
and  in  this  Association  alone  there  are  now  3,500  of  the 
most  representative  manufacturing  concerns  in  the  coun- 
try, each  of  them  paying  $50  a  year,  and  subject,  prob< 


280  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ably,  to  further  assessment  in  case  of  need.  And  tlia 
organization  has  been  perfected  as  much  as  the  numbers 
have  multiplied.  There  is  as  much  difference  between 
the  employers'  associaton  of  a  generation  ago,  and,  for 
instance,  the  National  Metal  Trades  Association,  as  be- 
tween the  old  Articles  of  Confederation  and  the  present 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Taking  a  lesson  from 
the  trade  unions,  these  associations  formed  in  1903  a  fed-, 
erated  Citizens'  Industrial  Association  of  America,  which 
is  designed  to  do  for  the  employers'  associations  what  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  has  done  for  the  labor 
organizations.  In  December,  1903,  there  were  affiliated 
with  the  Citizens'  Industrial  Association,  60  national 
associations,  Q6  state  and  district  associations,  and  335 
local  or  municipal  associations  of  employers.  In  the 
United  Kingdom,  in  the  same  year,  there  were  at  least  38 
national  associations  and  federations  of  employers,  and 
727  local  associations,  working  together  for  lobbying  pur- 
poses, at  least,  in  a  general  Parliamentary  Council. 

Among  modern  employers'  associations,  there  are  at 
least  two  distinct  types.  The  one  class,  organized  indeed 
for  defence,  are,  however,  conservative  and  conciliatory 
enough  to  work  in  harmony  with  the  trade  unions.  These 
associations,  well  illustrated  by  the  Stove  Founders'  Na- 
tional Defence  Association  or  the  Mason  Builders'  Asso- 
ciation of  Boston,  have  as  their  first  object  the  mainte- 
nance of  industrial  peace,  and  their  work  seems  to  be 
wholly  beneficent.  Those  of  the  second  class,  well  repre- 
sented by  the  Dayton  Employers'  Association  and  the 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  'JSl 

National  Association  of  Manufacturers  have  as  their  pri- 
mary object  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  certain 
fundamental  principles  whose  observance,  they  believe,  is 
demanded  alike  by  justice  and  social  expediency.  These 
associations  manifest  at  times  a  violent  hostility  to  trade 
unionism  and  they  are  frequently  called  "union-smash- 
ers." This  curt  description  seems  justified  by  the  utter- 
ances of  some  of  the  officials  of  these  organizations,  who 
are  daily  displaying  a  growing  and  more  open  contempt 
for  arbitration  and  conciliation.  But  in  soberer  moments 
they  disavow  any  intention  of  destroying  trade  unionism, 
although  it  is  certainly  fair  to  say  that  with  them  indus- 
trial peace  is  a  secondary  consideration.  They  want 
peace  only  when  peace  can  be  secured  without  sacrificing 
their  principles. 

It  is  just  these  principles,  honestly  and  stubbornly 
held,  that  threaten  to  engender  the  most  disastrous  con- 
flicts. This  fact  may  be  illustrated  by  a  few  quotations 
from  the  Declaration  of  Principles  of  the  National  Metal 
Trades  Association,  one  of  the  more  conservative  of  the 
second  group  of  associations,  if  indeed,  it  should  not  be 
classed  with  the  first  group.  After  "disavowing  any 
intention  to  interfere  with  the  proper  functions  of  labor 
organizations,"  and  announcing  their  intention  not  to 
discriminate  "against  any  man  because  of  his  member- 
ship in  any  society  or  organization,"  the  employers  fur- 
ther declare : 

(4)  The  number  of  apprentices,  helpers  and  handy  men  to  be  em- 
ployed will  be  determined  bolely  by  the  employer  (^>)  Employers  shall 
be  free  to  employ  their  work  people  at  wages  mutually   satisfactor;- 


282  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

We  will  not  permit  emplo.yeps  to  place  any  rostriction  on  the  manage- 
ment, methods  or  production  of  our  shops,  and  will  require  a  fair  day's 
work  for  a  fair  day's  pay.  Employees  will  be  paid  hji  the  hrjurly  rate, 
hy  premium  nysicm.  piece  vork  or  contract,  as  the  employers  may  elect. 
(6)  It  is  the  privilege  of  the  employee  to  leave  our  employ  whenever 
he  sees  fit  and  it  Is  the  privilege  of  the  employer  to  discharge  any 
workman  when  he  sees  fit.  (7)  The  above  principles  being  absolutely 
essential  to  the  successful  conduct  of  our  business,  they  are  not  subject 
to  arbitration.  In  case  of  disagreement  concerning  matters  not  covered 
by  the  foregoing  declaration,  we  advise  our  members  to  meet  their  em- 
ployees, either  individually  or  collectively  and  endeavor  to  adjust  the 
difficulty  on  a  fair  and  equitable  basis. ^ 

Now  it  is  useless  to  expatiate  upon  this  declaration  of 
principles.  The  manufacturers  who  subscribe  to  them 
plainly  entertain  the  deepest  and  most  honest  conviction 
that  the  fundamental  union  policies  of  a  closed  shop,  of 
bargaining  by  common  rules,  of  refusing  to  work  by  piece 
in  some  cases  and  demanding  the  piece  rate  in  other  cases, 
are  thoroughly  vicious,  unjust  and  industrially  demoral- 
izing. The  conviction  of  the  trade  unionists  that  these 
policies  are  not  only  just  but  essentially  necessary  to  the 
existence  of  trade  unionism,  is  just  as  profound  and  sin- 
cere as  the  antagonistic  convictions  of  their  emploj^ers. 
It  is  evident  that  we  have  here  all  the  essentials  of  a  des- 
perate and  protracted  struggle. 

The  policies  of  these  associations  include  assistance  to 
employers  in  case  of  authorized  lockouts  or  strikes,  strong 
legislative  committees  or  lobbies  to  secure  favorable  legis- 
lation and  fight  unfavorable  legislation,  and,  in  some 
cases,  the  maintenance  of  a  registry  or  list  of  workmen  in 
the  trade,  describing  their  habits,  qualifications,  previous 
?mployment,  etc.,  thus  enabling  employers  to  avoid  in- 

All  italics  mine. — T.  S.  A. 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  283 

competent  and  troublesome  men.  The  workmen  call  it  a 
''blacklist,"  the  employers  a  "whitelist."  Whether  it  is 
desirable  or  not  depends  entirely  upon  the  way  in  which 
it  is  used.  Certainly  those  who  advocate  a  complete 
right  of  boycott  can  not  logically  object  to  it. 

But  tlie  lob])ying  methods  of  some  of  these  organiza- 
tions furnish  the  most  interesting  information  concern- 
ing their  character  and  spirit,  as  is  evinced  from  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  from  circulai's  issued  by  the  National 
Association  of  Manufacturers:  "The  National  Trade 
Association  of  Manufacturers  is  the  largest  and  strongest 
trade  organization  in  the  world — whether  one  considers 
capital  invested,  hands  employed  or  output.  *  *  The 
Association  concerns  itself  with  national  and  state  legis- 
lation, publicly  and  powerfully  if  required,  secretly  and 
just  as  powerfully  if  that  seems  best.  It  knows  what  its 
own  members  and  all  manufacturers  desire ;  it  knows 
what  they  want  antagonized.  It  pushes  wise  legislation ; 
it  defeats  unwise  legislation."  In  another  publication 
the  Association  announced  its  deep  hostility  to  the  Hoar 
Anti-Injunction  bill,  and  to  the  bill  limiting  the  working 
day  upon  all  materials  manufactured  for  the  government 
to  eight  hours,  and  then  continued  :  ' '  The  determination 
is  that,  unless  the  business  interests  have  lost  their  intelli- 
gence and  their  fighting  spirit,  these  unwise  or  dangerous 
tendencies  shall  be  combated ;  and  all  of  the  persistence 
and  ingenuity  at  the  command  of  the  greatest  trade  body 
in  the  world,  and  of  all  its  members,  are  brought  to  bear 
in  exactly  the  right  way  at  exactly  the  right  time,  and  in 


284  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

exactly  the  right  phice.  *  *  At  AYashington  the  Asso- 
ciation is  not  represented  too  much  eitlicr  directly  or  indi- 
rectly. Sometimes  it  is  known  in  a  most  powerful  way 
that  it  is  represented,  vigorously  and  unitedly.  Some- 
times it  is  not  known  that  it  is  represented  at  all.  It  ia 
easy  to  see  that  in  the  advocacy  of  public  measures  certain 
methods  are  most  effective  and  most  proper  to  be  pursued. 
It  is  also  true  that  this  continuous  effort  is  sometimes  most 
successful  when  it  is  not  known  exactly  whence  the  pres- 
sure comes." 

In  quoting  these  expressions  of  principle  and  policy 
from  two  of  the  more  prominent  employers'  associations, 
we  do  not  mean  to  convey  the  impression  that  they  are 
typical  of  the  great  majority  of  employers'  associations 
in  this  country.  Nobody  knows  whether  they  are  or  not. 
What  we  do  wish  to  state  emphatically  is  that  the  number 
of  such  associations  is  rapidly  growing,  that  the  people 
who  compose  them  sincerely  uphold  certain  principles 
irreconcilable  with  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  trade 
unionism,  and  that  neither  side  will  abandon  its  prin- 
ciples without  a  conflict.  Many  students  of  this  question 
think  differently.  They  argue  that  the  heated  and  anti- 
quated expressions'  of  the  present  President  of  the  Citi- 
zens' Industrial  Alliance  are  certainly  not  endorsed  by 
any  large  number  of  American  employers,  and  in  this 
they  are  possibly  correct.     But  the  principles  enunciated 

^  President  Parry  characterizes  trade  unionism  as  a  "system  tliat  co- 
erces and  impoverishes  the  worlier,  ruins  the  capitalist,  terrorizes  oui 
politicians  and  destroys  our  trade — a  system  which  seems  hopelessly 
and  Irremedlally  l)Md.  a  bar  to  all  true  progress,  a  danger  to  the  state, 
qnd  a  menace  to  civilization." 


ORGANIZATIONS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  28^ 

by  the  National  Metal  Trades  Association  do  express  tlie 
sincere  convictions  of  a  large  majority  of  the  employers  of 
this  countr}',  in  the  writer 's  belief,  and  when  by  organiza- 
tion they  become  strong  enough,  they  will  make  the  at- 
tempt to  carry  them  out.  As  will  appear  in  the  succeed- 
ing chapter,  a  large  number  of  employers'  associations 
contribute  most  effectivel}^  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  by 
collective  bargaining  with  labor  organizations,  and,  in  the 
end,  probably  the  whole  movement  of  organization  among 
employers,  will  be  found  to  have  hastened  the  era  of  peac? 
by  checking  the  extortionate  demands  of  the  more  radical 
unions  and  by  providing  that  degree  of  organization 
among  employers  which  is  required  for  the  most  effective 
kind  of  collective  bargaining.  But  there  will  probably 
be  a  long  and  bitter  fight  before  the  trade  union  and  the 
employers '  association  can  be  hitched  in  the  same  harness 
to  draw  the  car  of  industrial  peace. 

References  :  The  voluminous  literature  upon  this  subject  makes  it 
unnecessary  to  mention  any  except  the  most  important  worl<s.  For  a 
comprehensive  view  of  trade-unionism  in  all  countries  see  Kulemann's 
Die  Getcrrkschaftsieiccgung;  for  the  development  of  the  union  Webb's 
History  of  Trade  Unionism  :  for  an  analysis  of  its  function  Webb's  In- 
dustrial Democracy ;  and  for  the  standard  description  and  discussion  of 
American  unions  see  the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission.  Vol. 
XVII,  the  contents  of  which  are  summarized  in  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  793-833. 
The  two  books  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  cited  above,  contain  an  exhaustive 
bibliography.  The  important  subject  of  restriction  of  output  will  be 
thoroughly  treated  in  a  forthcoming  fipccial  Report  of  the  (U.  S.J  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  on  the  "Regulation  and  Restriction  of  Output"  prepared 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  John  R.  Commons.  The  best  sources 
of  current  information  are  the  bulletins  of  the  labor  bureaus  and  the 
official  journals  of  the  trade  unions  and  employers'  associations,  among 
which  the  Ameriean  Fedcrationist,  the  Locomotire  Firemen's  Magazine, 
American  Industries,  and  the  Bulletin  of  the  National  Metal  Trades 
Association,  are  noteworthy.  With  these  should  be  named  the  Monthly 
Review  of  the  National  Civic  Federation,  and  labor  journals  like  the 
Cleveland  Citizen  and  the  Labor  Advocate  (Chicago). 


286  LABOR  PROBLEMS 


Supplementary  REAPixns  : 

1.  Development  of  Labor  Orpanizntion  : 

(a)    Webb,  "Origins  of  Trade  Unionism,"  History  nf  Trade  Tin- 

ionism,  cli.  1,  pp.  1-56  (1st  ed.). 
{h)    Mitchell,    "Organized    Labor    Before    and    Since   the   Civil 

War."  Orfjunizcd  LiiI>or,  ch.  IX,  pp.  ()0-74. 

2.  Organization  and  Government : 

(o)    Report  of  the  Industrial  Cotnmission,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  xxiil- 

xxxiii. 
(ft)    F.    W.    Galton,    "The    Inner   Life   of   a    Trade    Union,"    in 

Webb's  History  of  Trade  Unionism,  pp.  431-4.51  (Isted.). 

3.  Methods  and  rolicies  : 

(a)  American    I'nions.    Report   of   the  Industrial    Commission, 

Vol.  XVII,  pp.  xlii-ixxiii. 

(b)  "Should  Unions  Incorporate?"  Monthly  Review  of  the  Na- 

tional Civic  Federation,  April.  lOO.*?. 

(c)  The  Closed  Shop,  ibid.,  July,  1904. 

(d)  Ibid.,   Bullock,    .Xthmtie   Monthly.  October,    1004,   pp.   433- 

4.30. 

(e)  White,   "Machinery   and   Labor,"  Annals  of  the  American 
^  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Vol.   XX,   pp. 

223-231. 
(/)    Webb.    "Restriction    of    Numbers,''   Industrial   Democracy, 
pp.  704-715. 

4.  Theoretical   Analysis  of  Trade   Unionism  : 

(a)  Marshall,  Economics  of  Industry,  ch.  XIII.  pp.  358-395. 

(b)  W^ebb,  Industrial  Democracy,  ch.  Ill,  pp.  703-806  (2d  ed.). 

(c)  Cree,  A  Criticism  of  the  Theory  of  Trades  Unions  (pamp. 

39  pp.) 

5.  The  Practical   Limitations  of  tlie  Trade  I'nion.     Ernest   Aves 

in   Booth's  Life  and  Labour  of  the  People   in  London, 
Vol.  IX.  ch.  VI.  pp.  231-277. 

6.  Mitchell,  The  Moral   Influence  of  the  Trade  Union,   Organized 

Labor,  ch.  XVIII,  pp.  15.'1-150. 

7.  Ashley,  The  Legal  Position  of  Trade  Unions,  The  Adjustment 

of  Wages,  pp.  160-183. 

8.  Employers'  Associations : 

(a)  Oilman,   "Combination   of   Employers,"  Methods  of  InduS' 

trial  Peace,  ch.  III.  pp.  47-01. 

(b)  Massachusetts  Labor  Ilulletin  for  March.  1904. 

(c)  Balver,    "Organized    Capital    Challenges   Organized   Labor," 
^  McClure's  Magazine,  Vol.  23,  pp.  279-292. 

(d)  Ibid.,  "Capital  and  Labor  Together,"  MeClurc's  Magazine, 

Vol.  21,  pp.  451-463. 

9.  Clark,  "Organized  Labor  and  Monopoly,"  The  Problem  of  Mo- 

nopoly, ch.  IV.  pp.  60-85. 
10„     The  Union  Label,  J.  E.  Boyle  in  the  American  Journal  of  Soci- 
ology, Vol.  IX,  pp.  163-172. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE 

The  continual  warfare  between  capital  and  labor  has 
ceased  to  be  merely  regrettable,  and  has  become  intol- 
erable. This  is  fast  coming,  we  believe,  to  be  the  opinion 
of  large  numbers  of  people  in  the  United  States ;  and  that 
stupid  leviathan — the  "general  public" — is  growing  rest- 
ive under  the  dawning  consciousness  that,  whoever  stands 
to  gain  by  the  strike,  it  stands  always  to  lose,  and  that 
while  its  interests  are  incessantly  being  jeopardized,  noth- 
ing has  been  devised  which  effectively  protects  those  in- 
terests. Under  the  realization  of  these  facts,  there  is 
gradually  growing  an  impatience  with  ftxisting  conditions 
which,  if  it  finds  no  reasonable  method  of  securing  indus- 
trial peace,  will  attempt  to  seciiie  it  by  unreasonable 
methods.  Important  measures  making  towards  indus- 
trial peace  will  undoubtedly  be  taken  in  the  near  future. 
The  proper  formulation  of  these  measures  constitutes  at 
once  one  of  the  most  delicate  and  important  problems 
which  modern  democracy  is  called  upon  to  solve. 

1.  Definitions:  The  agencies  of  industrial  peace  as- 
sume a  great  variety  of  forms  and  functions,  and  before 
proceeding  further  it  is  necessary  to  say  a  word  about  the 
terms  employed  to  describe  them,  which  have  fallen  into 

287 


288  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

some  confusion,  (a)  Conciliation  implies  the  existence 
of  hostility,  active  or  latent.  The  bringing  together  of 
employers  and  employees  for  the  settlement  of  their  dif- 
ferences by  peaceable  negotiation  will  be  called  concilia' 
Hon,  and  the  organizations  which  confine  themselves  to 
this  work  boards  of  conciliation.  It  need  hardly  be  said 
that  there  are  priimte  and  governmental  boards  of  con- 
ciliation, the  first  illustrated  by  the  Civic  Federation,  the 
second  b}^  the  state  boards  discussed  in  the  following 
sections. 

(b)  Man}^  of  these  boards  go  further  and  offer  to  arbi- 
trate trade  disputes,  when  the  disputants  can  not  settle 
their  differences  by  peaceable  negotiation.  Such  boards 
are  ordinarily  called  hoards  of  conciliation  and  arhifra- 
tion,  although  the  word  conciliation  might  well  be 
dropped  whenever  it  is  used  in  company  with  arbitration, 
as  conciliation  almost  invariably  precedes  arbitration. 

(c)  By  arbitration  is  meant  the  adjudication  and  au- 
thoritative settlement  of  disputes  between  w'orkmen  and 
their  employers.  The  term  carries  with  it  an  element  of 
extraneous  authority  entirely  absent  from  conciliation. 
There  are  two  forms  of  arbitration  which  must  be  dis- 
tinguished, primary  arbitration  and  secondary  arbitra- 
tion. By  primary  arbitration  we  mean  the  authoritative 
settlement  by  impartial  arbiters  of  the  terms  of  the  em- 
ployment contract  itself.  By  secondary  arbitration  we 
mean  the  adjudication  of  those  minor  disputes  growing 
out  of  the  interpretation  of  an  existing  contract.  Sec- 
ondary arbitration  is  judicial  and  easy.     Primary  arbi- 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  280 

tration  is  legislative  and  diffienlt.  Unless  otherwise 
stated,  primary  arbitration  will  be  nnderstood  to  include 
and  assume  secondary'  arbitration.  Where  the  state 
either  directly  or  indirectly  compels  employers  and  em- 
ployees to  submit  to  arbitration  trade  disputes  which  they 
can  not  settle  themselves  without  strikes  or  lockouts,  and 
then  enforces  the  awards  of  the  arbiters,  this  is  called — 
and  logicall}'  so— com pnlsori/  arhilration. 

(d)  When  employers  acquiesce  in  the  inevitableness  of 
trade  unions  and  agree  to  fix  the  terms  of  employment  by 
negotiation  and  higgling  with  representatives  of  their 
emploj^ees,  the  process  is  known  as  collective  'bargaining. 
AVhen  the  meetings  between  the  representatives  of  the 
employers  and  the  employees  occur  irregularly  or  only 
once  or  twice  a  year,  we  shall  speak  of  them— following 
American  usage— as  joint  conferences;  and  the  compacts 
made  at  such  conferences,  respecting  wages  and  other 
conditions  of  employment,  will  be  called  trade  agree- 
ments, (e)  When,  however,  these  agreements  provide  for 
a  formal  board,  which  meets  frequenth^  and  is  empowered 
to  settle  differences  authoritatively  by  arbitration,  we 
shall  speak  of  the  organization  as  a  trade  hoard  of  arbitra- 
tion This  pedantic  discussion  of  terms  would  have 
been  omitted,  if  common  usage  were  not  so  inconsistent; 
and  the  terminology  given  above  is  suggested  merely  as  a 
workable  compromise  between  logic  and  conflicting  usage. 

2.  Governmental  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  in  Eng- 
land: In  discussing  the  question  of  industrial  peace,  it 
is  too  often  forgotten  that  this  is  a  problem  with  a  long 
19 


290  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

past.  "When  after  the  Black  Death  the  workingmen  of 
England  took  advantage  of  the  scarcity  of  labor  to  de- 
mand higher  wages  and  strikes  became  frequent,  the  gov- 
ernment attempted  to  settle  the  question  by  edicts  and 
statutes  requiring  laborers  to  accept  work  when  offered  at 
the  prices  prevalent  before  the  plague.  The  first  statute 
of  laborers  was  passed  in  1351  and  reenacted  with  slight 
modifications  thirteen  times  in  the  hundred  years  follow- 
ing its  first  adoption.  In  1389  an  act  was  passed  author- 
izing justices  of  the  peace  to  fix  wages,  and  from  that  time 
to  1811  wages  were  alternately  fixed  by  acts  of  Parliament 
and  summary  decisions  of  the  justices.  As  late  as  1796 
the  justices  were  actually  directed  to  establish  a  national 
rate  of  wages.  The  first  method  of  securing  industrial 
peace,  then,  was  by  governmental  fiat,  and  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  add  that  it  proved  an  utter  failure  and  was 
so  acknowledged  by  the  very  Parliaments  which  in  de- 
spair of  a  better  remedy  constantly  readopted  it. 

On  the  surface  there  appears  to  be  no  great  difference 
between  the  fixation  of  Avages  by  arbitrators  and  the  fixa- 
tion by  ordinary  judges  who  are  presumably  impartial 
and  just.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  judges  are  like 
other  mortals,  afflicted  with  the  unconscious  prejudices 
and  preconceptions  of  the  class  to  which  they  belong,  so 
that  in  reality  there  is  likely  to  be  a  great  difference  be- 
tween the  decision  of  an  oixlinary  justice  and  the  decision 
of  a  special  arbitrator  in  whose  selection  the  wage-earners 
have  had  an  equal  voice  with  the  employers.  The  realiza- 
tion of  this  fact  began  early  in  England.     In  1603  a  law 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  291 

was  passed  providing  for  "arbitrations"  in  certain  com- 
mercial disputes.  In  1701  the  principle  was  extended  to 
labor  disputes  in  certain  textile  industries  and  the  iron 
manufacture,  although  this  law  did  little  more  than  pro- 
vide for  adequate  representation  of  the  workingmen's 
side  before  the  two  justices  who  acted  as  arbiters.  Sev- 
eral similar  acts  followed,  but  all  of  them  were  replaced 
in  1824  by  "An  act  to  consolidate  and  amend  the  laws 
relating  to  the  arbitration  of  disputes  between  masters 
and  workingmen. ' '  This  act  marks  the  positive  adoption 
of  two  very  important  principles:  (a)  thereafter,  when 
arbitration  was  employed,  the  masters  and  workmen  Avere 
to  be  equally  represented;  and  (b),  voluntary  arbitration 
replaced  the  fixation  of  wages  by  Parliament  or  justices 
of  the  peace.  ' '  Nothing, ' '  reads  the  act,  * '  shall  authorize 
any  justice  to  establish  a  rate  of  wages  or  price  of  labor 
or  workmanship  at  which  the  workman  in  future  shall  be 
paid,  unless  with  mutual  consent  of  both  master  and 
workman." 

The  act  of  1824  marks  the  formal  abandonment  of  the 
attempt  to  fix  wages  by  law  or  by  the  ordinary  judicial 
authorities.  As  a  positive  method  of  introducing  arbi- 
tration, however,  the  act  was  a  flat  failure.  It  was 
amended  in  1837,  supplemented  by  the  Councils  of  Con- 
ciliation Act  of  1867,  amended  by  the  Masters  and  Work- 
men Arbitration  Act  of  1872,  and  in  1896  repealed,  in 
company  with  the  acts  just  mentioned,  by  "An  act  to 
make  better  provision  for  the  prevention  and  settlement 


292  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

of  trade  disputes."^  This  law  contents  itself  with  the 
mildest  kind  of  voluntary  conciliation  and  arbitration. 
The  private  boards  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  are 
officially  recognized ;  the  Board  of  Trade  is  autliorized  to 
examine,  compulsorily  if  necessary,  the  causes  and  cir- 
cumstances of  any  labor  dispute ;  and  it  is  further  em- 
powered to  take  steps  for  the  creation  of  voluntary  or 
private  boards  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  in  indus- 
tries where  they  do  not  already  exist. 

The  point  of  importance  is  that  this  law  fails  utterly  to 
provide  an  adequate  solution  of  the  strike  problem.  Ac- 
cording to  official  English  statistics  there  were  about 
3,584  strikes  from  1896  to  1901,  while  in  the  same  period 
the  Board  of  Trade  acted  upon  only  113  disputes,  70  of 
which  it  succeeded  in  settling,  9  by  conciliation,  38  by 
arbitration,  and  23  by  negotiations  of  officials  of  the 
Board.  The  law,  to  be  sure,  is  far  better  than  nothing. 
To  avert- 70  strikes  in  five  years  is  well  worth  doing,  and 
undoubtedly  saves  the  country  far  more  than  the  expenses 
of  the  arbitration  department  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
But  taking  into  account  the  magnitude  of  the  problem,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  after  nearly  a  centurj^'s  trial,  gov- 
ernmental arbitration  in  England  is  a  woeful  disappoint- 
ment. 

3.  The  French  Conseils  de  Pnidhommes:  AA^hile  Eng- 
land was  apparently  proving  that  governmental  arbitra- 
tion is  a  failure,  France  was  demonstrating  by  its  conseils 


'This  act  may  bp  found,  praotloally  complete,  in  nullclin  of  the  fU. 
S.)  Department  of  Labor,  No.  25,  pp.  833-834. 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  293 

de  prudhommcs  or  "councils  of  experts,"  tliat  it  can  be  a 
notable  success  within  certain  limits.  The  first  of  these 
councils  Avas  created  by  Napoleon  in  1806  for  the  Lyons 
silk  industry,  since  which  time  they  have  been  established 
in  all  parts  of  the  Republic.  These  councils  are  primarily 
labor  courts,  empowered  to  act  also  as  boards  of  con- 
ciliation, and  charged  with  certain  unimportant  adminis- 
trative duties.  They  consist  of  an  equal  number  of 
workmen  and  employers,  elected  at  general  assemblies  of 
the  respective  classes ;  and  within  each  council  there  are 
two  divisions,  a  special  bureau  of  conciliation  and  the 
general  bureau  of  arbitration.  The  special  bureau  con- 
sists of  one  employer  and  one  employee  who  sit  at  least 
once  a  week,  endeavor  to  bring  about  informal  settlements 
in  labor  disputes,  and  are  empowered  to  render  prelim- 
inary decisions.  If  the  preliminary  decision  is  not 
accepted  the  case  goes  to  the  arbitration  bureau,  which  is 
usually  composed  of  three  employers  and  three  employees, 
and  the  decision  of  this  branch  is  final  unless  the  sum 
involved  exceeds  200  francs,  in  which  event  an  appeal 
may  be  made  to  a  higher  tribunal.  Proceedings  before 
both  bureaus  are  exceedingly  informal,  disputants  are  not 
allowed  to  be  represented  by  counsel  and  the  costs  can  not 
in  any  case  exceed  50  francs.  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
conseils  is  limited.  They  have  no  control  over  the  con- 
clusion of  new  contracts  and  they  can  not  interfere  in 
strikes  or  disputes  about  future  terms  of  employment. 
They  are  thus  occupied  with  the  interpretation  of  existing 
labor  contracts  and  with  disputes  about  methods  of  wage 


294  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

payment,  absence  from  work,  apprenticeship,  penalties 
for  defective  workmanship,  etc.  Bnt  within  this  sphere, 
when  the  dispute  does  not  involve  more  than  200  francs, 
their  decisions  are  final. 

The  conseil  de  prudJiommcs  is  thus  seen  to  be  a  petty 
court,  and  so  constituted  as  to  give  the  wage-earners  an 
equal  representation  with  the  employers.  It  can  not  settle 
strikes,  but  it  can  and  does  prevent  strikes  by  adjusting 
the  minor  grievances  and  soothing  the  petty  resentments 
which,  when  not  settled,  rankle  in  the  minds  of  working- 
men,  accumulate,  and  constitute  the  fuel  upon  which  the 
strike  feeds.  The  work  done  by  the  conseils  is  immense. 
In  1898,  for  instance,  50,887  cases  were  handled,  of  which 
41  per  cent,  were  conciliated  by  the  special  bureaus,  13 
per  cent,  arbitrated  by  the  general  bureaus,  and  39  per 
cent,  withdrawn  by  the  parties  during  the  proceedings.^ 
Their  success  serves  to  emphasize  an  exceedingly  impor- 
tant distinction,  the  distinction  between  the  interpreta- 
tion of  an  existing  labor  contract  and  the  adoption  of  a 
new  labor  contract.  The  former  is  judicial  in  nature,  the 
latter  commercial ;  the  one  calls  for  an  application  of 
reason,  the  other  for  a  competitive  contest.  Experience 
amply  demonstrates  that  arhitration  offers  a  successfid 
remedy  for  disputes  ahout  the  interpretation  of  a  wage 
contract,  or  the  mere  application  of  a  principle  of  wage 
payment,  where  some  principle  such  as  that  of  (he  sliding 
scale  is  accepted  hy  hoih  employers  and  employees.     But 


^  Comptc  Oeneral  dc  V Administration  dv  la  Justice  Civile  ei  Comi7ier- 
cial.  1898,  p.  139. 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  20.') 

in  dispiifrs  about  the  adoption  of  new  contracts,  ivhere  no 
such  principle  is  accepted  by  the  disputants,  voluntary 
arbitration  has  not  yet  proved  itself  an  adequate  remedy. 

4.  The  French  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Act  of 
1892:  For  the  encouragement  of  conciliation  and  arbi- 
tration in  the  settlement  of  strikes  and  collective  disputes, 
Prance  has  a  voluntary  arbitration  law^  similar  in  spirit 
to  those  of  England  and  the  United  States.  The  execu- 
tion of  this  law  devolves  principally  upon  justices  of  the 
peace,  who  are  directed  to  use  their  good  offices  in  effect- 
ing peaceful  settlements  of  strikes  and  collective  disputes 
which  threaten  to  end  in  strikes.  Statistics  covering  the 
ten  years  ending  1902  show  that  recourse  was  had  to  the 
law  of  1892  in  about  1,250  of  the  5,300  strikes  which 
occurred,  and  that  about  525  disputes,  or  10  per  cent., 
were  settled  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  law. 
More  than  five  times  as  many  disputes  are  settled  by  con- 
ciliation as  by  arbitration.  The  last  result  is  character- 
istic of  the  relative  utility  of  conciliation  and  voluntary 
arbitration  the  world  over.  In  the  percentage  of  cases 
actually  settled  by  the  two  methods,  however,  France  is 
far  above  both  England  and  the  United  States. 

5.  Governmental  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  in  thei. 
United  States:     The  first  statutes  providing  for  public 
conciliation  and  arbitration  in  the  United  States  were 
adopted  by  New  York  and  Massachusetts  in  1886 ;  and 
similar  laws  are  found  at  present  on  the  statute  books  of 


*A  translation  may  be  found  in  Bulletin  of  the  (U.  S.)  Department 
of  Labor,  No.  25,  pp.  854-856. 


296  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

about  one-half  of  the  states.  These  laws  fall  into  three 
general  classes:  (a)  those  which  aim  simply  to  facilitate 
and  strengthen  private  or  local  conciliation  and  arbitra- 
tion ;  (b)  those  which  authorize  the  commissioner  of  labor 
to  intervene  in  labor  disputes  for  the  purpose  of  intro- 
ducing conciliation  or  arbitration;  (c)  and  those  which 
instead  of,  or  in  addition  to,  the  attempt  to  facilitate  pri- 
vate conciliation  and  arbitration,  provide  for  a  more  or 
less  permanent  and  specialized  central  board.  Xo  real 
attempt  has  been  made  to  administer  these  laws  except  in 
about  nine  states,  and  only  five  of  these— Massachusetts, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Ohio,  and  New  York — have  accom- 
plished results  worthy  of  attention.  It  so  happens  that 
the  laws  of  these  five  states^  all  fall  in  group  (c).  The 
details  of  this  legislation  may  be  found  in  the  fifth  volume- 
'^  of  the  Ecport  of  the  Industrial  Commission  (Chapter 
XI).  Here,  attention  will  be  confined  to  the  third  group. 
In  this  group  the  state  board,  as  is  usually  the  case, 
consists  of  three  persons  appointed  by  the  governor,  one 
an  employer  or  selected  from  an  employers'  association, 
the  second  a  wage-earner  or  selected  from  a  labor  organ- 
ization, the  third  appointed  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
other  two.  In  Indiana  the  third  member  is  the  judge  of 
the  circuit  court  of  the  county  in  which  the  disjnite  oc- 
curs, while  here  as  in  Massachusetts  and  elsewhere  the 
board  may  be  increased  by  expert  assistants  having  spe- 
cial knowledge  of  the  question  in  dispute.     In  Illinois 


>  In  New  York  this  work  has  recently  been  transferred  to  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor  and  ills  two  asKlst.ints. 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  297 

and  Indiana  it  is  provided  that  not  more  than  two  mem- 
bers of  the  regular  l)oard  shall  belong  to  the  same  polit- 
ical party.  Disputants  may  by  mutual  consent  refer  dis- 
putes to  the  board  for  arbitration,  or  the  board  may  on  its 
own  initiative  intervene  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating 
the  parties,  but  in  most  of  these  states  at  least  twenty-five 
persons  must  be  involved  in  the  dispute  before  the  board 
may  intervene.  The  acceptance  of  arbitration  is  in  all 
eases  purely  voluntary,  but  if  both  parties  do  accept, 
rather  stringent  provisions  exist  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  award  in  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Texas.  In  these  states 
the  breach  of  an  award  by  anything  like  a  strike  or  lockout 
may  be  punished  as  contempt  of  court ;  but  in  most  of  the 
states  no  real  power  of  enforcing  the  award  exists. 
Where  the  disputants  will  not  agree  to  submit  the  quarrel 
to  the  board,  the  latter  may  now  in  most  of  the  states 
investigate  the  dispute  on  its  own  initiative  and  publish  a 
report  of  the  investigation  stating  the  cause  and  assign- 
ing blame  and  responsibility.  In  Indiana  the  board  is 
positively  directed  to  make  this  ''compulsory  investiga- 
tion." In  all  five  states  the  boards  are  empowered  to 
subpoena  witnesses  and  take  testimony ;  in  all  except 
New  York  they  may  require  the  production  of  certain 
books  and  papers ;  but  the  Illinois  board  is  the  only  one 
which  has  really  adequate  power  of  this  sort. 

The  w^ork  of  these  boards  is  thus  summarized  in  the 
seventeenth  volume  of  the  Report  of  the  hidustrial  Com- 
mission  (page  cvi)  : 

' '  ( 1 )  The  action  of  the  board  in  regard  to  a  labor  dis* 


298  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

pute  begins  in  a  large  majority  of  instances  on  its  own 
initiative  without  application  by  the  parties. 

''  (2)  In  nearly  all  of  the  remaining  cases  the  applica- 
tion for  the  services  of  the  State  board  comes  from  one 
party  only,  more  fre(piently  from  the  employees  than 
from  the  employers.  Only  in  rare  instances  do  both 
parties  at  the  outset  apply  to  the  board,  thus  giving  it 
jurisdiction  to  render  an  authoritative  decision.  After 
the  board  has  intervened  by  its  own  initiative  or  on  the 
application  of  one  of  the  parties,  both  are  sometimes  per- 
suaded to  join  in  an  agreement  to  submit  their  disputes  to 
formal  decision  by  the  board. 

"  (3)  The  intervention  of  the  board  usually  takes  place 
only  after  open  rupture  between  the  employers  and 
employees;  that  is,  after  a  strike  or  lockout  has  actually 
taken  place.  Only  rarely  do  we  find  that  the  board  is 
invited  to  conciliate  or  arbitrate  before  the  dispute  has 
resulted  in  cessation  of  employment,  while  naturally  the 
board  finds  it  difficult  to  learn  of  disputes  before  actual 
strike  or  lockout,  in  order  to  intervene  on  its  own  initia- 
tive. State  boards  frequently  express  regret  that  employ- 
ers and  employees  have  not  reached  the  stage  where  they 
are  willing  to  call  in  the  services  of  impartial  mediators 
and  arbitrators  at  the  outset,  without  waiting  until  a 
strike  or  lockout  with  its  accompanying  bitterness  and 
loss,  has  occurred." 

The  following  table  has  been  interjected  more  as  a  sum- 
marized statement  of  the  success  of  the  state  boards,  than 
as  an  accurate  statistical  exhibit.     The  work  of  the  arbi- 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE 

Work  of  the  State  Boards  of  Conciliation  and 
Arbitration 


299 


Strikes  and  Lockouts 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Mass. 

N.  Y. 

Ohio 

1895-1899 

1897-1900 

1894-1900 

1894-1900 

18931899 

Number  in  the  State 

1,138 

183 

516 

2,156 

744 

Cases  considered  .  .  . 

49 

79 

232 

157 

89 

Settled    by    Arbitra- 
tion   

7 

) 

53 

11(?) 

8 

Settled  by   Concilia- 
tion   

23 

C  55  (?) 

72 

76 

35 

Investigated  by  Board 
on  its  own  initia- 
tive   

3 

4(?) 

6 

20(?) 

Estimate  computed  from  the  Report  of  the  In.  Com.,  XVII.  pp.  429-457.     - 

tration  boards  does  not  lend  itself  to  brief  quantitative 
statement.  The  general  impression  left  by  the  table  is, 
however,  perfectly  correct.  That  the  state  boards  of 
Massachusetts  and  Indiana,  for  instance,  succeed  in 
adjusting  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  disputes  which 
occur  in  their  respective  states  demonstrates  that  the  state 
board  may  be  made  a  valuable  adjunct  in  the  work  of 
bringing  about  industrial  peace.  Kemembering,  however, 
that  these  five  boards  are  the  only  ones,  with  three  or  four 
unimportant  additions,  which  are  doing  anything  at  all, 
we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  voluntary  state  arbitration 
certainly  has  not  furnished,  and  probably  will  never  fur- 
nish, an  adequate  solution  of  the  problem  of  industrial 
war. 

How  can  the  state  boards  be  improved  ?     How  can  the^. 


300  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

be  brought  to  the  full  limit  of  their  industrial  efficiency? 
Students  of  the  subject  will  jjrobably  agree  in  the  follow- 
ing recommendations : 

First  and  foremost,  that  these  boards  should  be  manned 
by  active,  earnest,  and  if  possible,  by  distinguished  men, 
giving  their  entire  time  to  this  work.  In  every  depart- 
ment of  administration  it  is  the  men  behind  the  law  who 
make  or  mar  it,  but  in  this  work  of  conciliating  angry, 
irritated  disputants  who  entertain  something  akin  to 
contempt  for  the  men  who  pave  the  way  for  industrial 
peace,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  character  and 
ability  of  the  conciliators  be  such  as  to  command  con- 
fidence and  respect.  And  it  is  quite  as  important  that  the 
men  who  compose  these  boards  should  devote  their  entire 
time  to  this  work.  In  the  great  majority  of  the  states 
having  arbitration  boards,  the  members  are  paid  only 
while  engaged  in  actual  service,  and  then  the  compensa- 
tion is  low,  usually  five  dollars  a  day.  This,  more  than 
any  other  single  fact,  explains  the  utter  failure  of  the 
boards  in  most  states. 

Secondly,  better  measures  must  be  devised  for  inform- 
ing the  boards  of  contemplated  strikes  and  lockouts.  At 
present,  mayors  and  other  local  officials,  who  have  little 
or  no  means  of  acquiring  advance  information  about  labor 
disputes,  are  charged  with  the  duty  of  notifying  the 
boards,  or  the  latter  are  left  to  acquire  their  knowledge 
through  the  daily  papers  or  by  public  rumor.  In  either 
case,  the  mischief  is  done  and  the  battle  is  on  long  1)efo]-c 
the  board  can  get  to  work.     It  is  of  vital  importance  that 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  301 

these  disputes  should  be  nipped  in  the  bud.  Once  the 
issue  is  drawn,  ultimatums  issued,  and  the  pride  of  the 
contesting  parties  aroused,  the  overtures  of  the  mediator 
are  apt  to  be  rejected  with  scorn. 

Thirdly,  adequate  power  to  compel  the  production  of 
necessary  books  and  papers  should  be  given ;  and  the 
boards  should  be  required  to  make  a  * '  compulsory  investi- 
gation," and  publish  a  finding  in  which  an  approximately 
just  solution  of  the  dispute  would  be  proposed  and 
responsibility  for  the  continuance  of  hostilities  properly 
placed. 

Finally,  a  permanent  and  specialized  national  board 
should  be  created,  charged  with  the  office  of  conciliation 
in  widespread  national  strikes  and  those  involving  inter- 
state commerce.  An  admirable  bill  providing  for  such  a 
board,  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Volney  W.  Foster  of  Chicago, 
was  introduced  in  a  recent  session  of  Congress,  but  failed 
to  become  a  law. 

6.  Collective  Bargaining,  Joint  Conferences  and  Trade 
Arbitration:  Publicists  and  particularly  preachers  in 
recent  years  have  indulged  in  a  vast  amount  of  senti- 
mentalism  about  the  ' '  innate  harmony  of  interest  between 
capital  and  labor."  Such  a  harmony  of  interest  does 
exist  in  a  very  broad  social  sense,  inasmuch  as  capital  and 
labor  must  cooperate  in  the  work  of  production,  and  the 
larger  this  product  the  greater— other  things  being  equal 
—will  be  the  general  social  welfare.  But  in  a  far  more 
intimate  and  personal  sense,  no  such  harmony  exists.  A 
portion  of  the  product  of  industry  may  go  either  to  the 


302  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

employer  as  profits  or  to  the  wage-earner  as  wages ;  what 
the  one  gets  the  other  loses ;  in  the  division  of  this  portion 
of  the  product  the  two  classes  are  necessarily  rivals ;  and 
while  the  wage  system  endures  no  amount  of  repetition 
about  ' '  harmony ' '  and  cooperation ' '  can  ever  disguise  or 
eliminate  this  immediate  individual  antagonism. 

The  two  classes,  then,  must  fight  it  out :  the  important 
question  is— how  shall  the  fight  be  conducted?  Evi- 
dently it  may  be  fought  out  by  the  violent  means  of 
strikes  and  boj'cotts ;  or  in  the  judicial  fashion  of  a  law 
suit,  before  arbitrators ;  or  by  the  commercial  method  of 
higgling  over  terms  and  prices,  which  Mr.  Mundella  has 
called  "a  long  jaw,"  and  Mrs.  Webb,  ''collective  bargain- 
ing." It  is  the  last  method  with  which  we  are  concerned 
here.  Collective  bargaining  of  course  takes  place  as  soon 
as  organized  labor  can  persuade  or  compel  an  employer  to 
deal  with  his  employees  Collectively  or  by  common  rules. 
This  informal  and  sporadic  collective  bargaining  must 
have  begun  very  early  in  England,  and  is  properly 
treated  in  connection  with  the  strike  and  labor  organiza- 
tions. In  time,  however,  a  fixed  place  and  regular  time 
of  meeting  are  appointed,  in  order  that  the  negotiation 
may  not  break  down,  or  fail  to  be  resumed— that  is  to  say, 
collective  bargaining  becomes  regular  and  formal.  It  is 
with  formal  collective  bargaining  alone  that  we  are  con- 
cerned in  this  chapter. 

Just  when  formal  collective  bargaining  began  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  say.  Mr.  Weeks  tells  us  that  peace  was  secured  in 
the  pottery  trade  of  England  after  1836  by  the  insertion 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  303 

in  \vao:e-eontracts  of  clauses  providing  for  the  arbitration 
of  differences,  thus  implying  that  recurrent  conferences 
were  held  for  the  adoption  of  such  contracts.  Dr.  Spence 
Watson  tells  us  that  "there  were  one  or  two  instances  of 
boards  which  aimed  at  the  joint  arrangement  of  prices 
and  wages,  even  so  early  as  1853. ' '  But  the  first  success- 
ful trade  board  of  arbitration^  was  established  in  1860  for 
the  hosiery  and  glove  trade  of  Nottingham,  England,  by 
Mr.  A.  J.  Mundella,  a  manufacturer  who  had  risen  from 
the  working  classes.  The  time  seemed  ripe  for  the  move- 
ment. In  March,  1864,  and  it  appears  independently  of 
the  Nottingham  movement,  a  somewhat  similar  board 
was  formed  in  the  Wolverhampton  building  trade ;  and 
on  March  22,  1869,  the  iron  manufacturers  in  the  north  of 
England  united  in  the  formation  of  the  celebrated  Board 
of  Arbitration  and  Conciliation  for  the  North  of  England 
Manufactured  Iron  Trade,  which  has  operated  with  won- 
derful success  and  efficiency  since  that  time. 

In  the  United  States,  the  same  forces  were  evidently  at 
work.  As  early  as  1865,  the  United  Sons  of  Vulcan  and 
the  manufacturers  of  iron  in  the  Pittsburg  iron  district 
inaugurated  the  custom  of  joint  conferences  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  wage-scales;  and  on  February  13,  1865,  a 
sliding  scale  for  boiling  work  was  agreed  to,  which  was 
the  first  of  the  many  scales  which  have  since  been  adopted 
in  joint  conference  between  the  iron  and  steel  manufac- 
turers and  the  successor  of  the  United  Sons  of  Vulcan,  the 


'  Almost  always  called  boards  of  conciliation  or  boards  of  concilia- 
tion and  arbitration,  in  England. 


304  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron,  Steel  and  Tin  "Work- 
ers of  the  United  States.  About  1869  a  similar  move- 
ment began  in  the  anthracite  coal  regions  of  Pennsyl- 
vania which,  as  in  the  iron  trade,  resulted  in  the  general 
adoption  of  the  principle  of  the  sliding  scale,  and  the 
creation  of  a  trade  board  of  arbitration  in  April,  1871, 
which  never  worked  with  success.  In  the  boot  and  shoe 
trade  of  Lynn,  Mass.,  a  trade  board  of  arbitration  was 
formed  by  the  manufacturers  and  the  Knights  of  St. 
Crispin  as  early  as  July  21,  1870,  which  did  operate  suc- 
cessfully for  about  two  years.  This  is  possibly  the  first 
successful  attempt  to  introduce  formal  arbitration  in  the 
United  States. 

A  few  years  later  the  movement  of  conciliation  and 
arbitration  was  well  under  way.^  In  England,  men  like 
Mr.  Mundella,  Sir  Rupert  Kettle,  Dr.  Spence  AVatson, 
Henry  Compton  and  others  were  not  only  settling  dis- 
putes successfully  by  conciliation  and  arbitration,  but 
were  enthusiastically  engaged  in  a  propaganda  of  the 
virtues  and  advantages  of  the  system.  The  United 
States  was  interested  in  the  movement.  In  1876  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  made  an 
investigation  of  the  subject.  In  1878  I\Ir.  Joseph  D. 
Weeks  was  sent  to  Europe  by  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, to  study  this  question.  In  January,  1879,  the  first 
board  with  really  adequate  by-laws  and  pi'ovisions  for 


1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  as  early  as  1874  the  late  Senator 
Hanna  participated  in  a  short-lived  system  of  joint  conferences,  formed 
!n  the  mininii  industry  of  the  Tuscarawas  Valley  (Ohio)  December  17, 
1874 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  305 

recurrent  meetings  was  established  in  the  cigar  factory  of 
Straiton  and  Storm  of  New  York ;  and  April  24,  1885,  a 
successful  joint  arbitration  committee  of  the  Mason 
Builders'  Association  and  the  Bricklayers'  Union  was 
formed  in  New  York  city,  which  met  once  a  month  and 
has  successfully  prevented  strikes  from  its  formation  to 
the  present  time.  Since  1885  the  system  of  joint  confer- 
ences and  trade  agreements  has  extended  slowly  but 
steadily  over  all  the  industrial  sections  of  the  United 
States. 

7.  Structure  and  Organization  of  Joint  Conferences 
and  Trade  Boards  of  Arbitration:  The  prototype  of  the 
most  highly  developed  trade  board  of  arbitration  is  the 
local  trade  agreement  for  irregular  collective  bargaining, 
hundreds  of  which  are  adopted  every  year  at  the  close  of 
strikes.  It  includes  only  the  workmen  and  employers  of 
a  single  trade  in  a  restricted  district,  and  there  is  no  pro- 
vision for  regular  meetings.  A  perfect  illustration  is 
found  in  what  is  probably  the  first  successful  trade 
agreement  adopted  in  the  United  States,  that  made 
July  23,  1867,  between  the  Committee  of  (Iron)  Boilers 
and  (Pittsburg  Iron)  Manufacturers,  which  fixed  wages 
in  accordance  with  a  sliding  scale  that  could  be  dissolved 
by  either  party  on  thirty  days'  notice,  and  provided  that 
in  such  an  event  ' '  immediate  steps  shall  be  taken  by  both 
parties,  following  said  notice,  to  meet,  and  endeavor  to 
arrange  the  difference,  and  settle  the  difficulty  which 
occasioned  said  notice." 

Such  an  agreement  fails  to  give  that  assurance  of  peace 
20 


306  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

for  a  definite  period  whicli  is  the  principal  desideratum 
to  the  employer.  To  remedy  this  unnecessary  defect, 
new  agreements  are  made  for  a  specific  time,  usually  a 
year,  at  the  end  if  which  period  a  meeting  is  held  to  bar- 
gain about  terms  and  wages  for  the  ensuing  year.  This 
is  the  local  trade  agreement  for  regular  joint  conferences, 
and  is  well  illustrated  by  the  early  agreements  made  by 
the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron,  Steel  and  Tin 
Workers  with  individual  manufacturers.  Soon,  however, 
the  trade  union  grows  into  an  organization  of  national 
Bcope,  the  employers  form  an  Association  of  Bar  Iron 
Manufacturers,  combine  in  a  Republic  Iron  and  Steel 
Company,  or  federate  in  a  Labor  Bureau  Association; 
and  the  agreements  made  by  these  organizations  with  the 
Amalgamated  Association  are  not  only  national  in  scope, 
but  cover  all  the  trades  in  a  single  industry,  or,  perhaps, 
in  a  number  of  related  industries.  We  thus  get  various 
forms  of  national  trade  agreements  for  regular  joint 
conferences. 

The  successive  stages  in  ihe  development  of  the  mech- 
anism of  secondary  and  primary  arbitration  hardly 
require  description.  It  is  soon  found  that  the  annual 
agreements  need  constant  interpretation  to  fit  the  stub- 
born facts  of  exceptional  cases;  and  employers  and 
employees  who  are  by  no  means  ready  to  accept  primary 
arbitration,  agree  to  incorporate  into  the  sj-stem  some 
provision  for  the  arbitration  of  minor  differences  arising 
in  the  interpretation  of  the  joint  agreement;  and  thus 
emerges  the  group  of  agencies  for  collective  bargaining 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  307 

and  secondary  arhifration,  a  f?ood  illustration  of  which  is 
found  in  the  joint  Agreement  Between  the  Architectural 
Iron  League  and  the  Bridge  and  Structural  Iron  Work- 
ers' Union  No.  1,  adopted  in  Chicago,  April  1,  1903.^ 
This  system  having  demonstrated  its  efficiency,  the  desire 
to  eliminate  all  possibility  of  strikes  leads  to  the  extension 
of  secondary  arbitration  into  primary  arbitration,  and  an 
agreement  is  made  that  every  difference,  however  impor- 
tant and  wide-reaching,  which  can  not  be  settled  by  pro- 
tracted collective  bargaining,  shall  be  referred  to  arbi- 
trators and  an  umpire.  Thus  we  reach  the  highest  form 
of  peace  organization :  a  permanent  trade  or  industrial 
board  for  collective  bargaining  and  arbitration,  such  as 
those  established  by  the  Mason  Builders'  Association  of 
Boston  with  the  Stone  Masons',  Bricklayers'  and  other 
unions  of  Boston. 

In  the  United  States  at  the  present  time  there  are  a 
large  number  of  local  systems  of  joint  conferences  or 
trade  arbitration,  and  about  a  dozen  broad,  national  sys- 
tems. Of  the  latter  only  one  or  two,  strictly  interpreted, 
provide  for  secondary  arbitration ;  and  only  one— the 
Arbitration  Agreement  between  the  American  Publish- 
ers' Association  and  the  International  Typographical 
Union— provides  for  complete  or  primary  arbitration, 
and  even  in  this  agreement  arbitration  has  recently  been 
confined  to  questions  of  wages. 

In  Great  Britain,  the  machinery  of  conciliation  and 

1  An  unusually  instructive  agreement  of  this  kind,  which  the  readei 
may  find  conveniently  in  BulUtm  of  the  (U.  8.)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No - 
49,  pp.  132:^-1327. 


308  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

arbitration  is  much  more  highly  developed.  To  give  some 
idea  of  the  ultimate  form  of  organized  conciliation  and 
arbitration  we  quote  in  detail  below  the  rules  of  the  most 
successful  board  that  has  yet  been  devised,  a  board  that 
has  settled  about  1,500  ordinary  disputes,  about  30  wide= 
reaching  difficulties,  affecting  the  wages  of  the  entire 
trade  of  a  very  large  district,  and  for  thirty-five  years  has 
practically  eliminated  strikes  in  one  of  the  most  complex 
and  important  industries  in  England.  A  few  unimpor- 
tant by-laws  have  been  omitted,  and  some  of  the  more 
important  rules  italicized,  whose  bearing  and  significance 
the  reader  is  earnestly  requested  to  consider. 

RULES  AND  BY-LAWS  OP  THE  BOARD  OF  CONCILIATION  AND 
ARBITRATION  FOR  THE  MANUFACTURED  IRON  AND  STEEL 
TRADE  OF  THE  NORTH   OF   ENGLAND. 


1.  The  title  of  the  board  shall  be  The  Board  of  Conciliation  and 
Arbitration  for  the  Manufactured  Iron  and  Steel  Trade  of  the  North 
of  England. 

2.  The  object  of  the  board  shall  be  to  arbitrate  on  wages  or  any 
other  matters  affecting  the  respective  interests  of  the  employers  or 
operatives,  and  by  conciliatory  means  to  interpose  its  influence  to  pre- 
vent disputes  and  put  an  end  to  any  that  may  arise. 

3.  The  board  shall  consist  of  one  employer  and  one  operative  repre- 
sentative from  each  works  joining  the  board.  Where  two  or  more 
worlis  belong  to  the  same  proprietors,  each  works  may  claim  to  be  rep- 
resented at  the  board,  but  in  all  such  cases  where  iron  and  steel  is 
worljed,  it  is  recommended  that  one  representative  shall  represent  iron 
and  one  steel  ;  such  arrangements  shall,  however,  be  optional  on  the 
part  of  the  firm  and  worl<men  jointly. 

4.  The  employers  shall  be  entitled  to  send  one  duly  accredited  rep- 
resentative from  each  works  to  eacli  meeting  of  tlie  board. 

5.  The  operatives  of  each  worics  shall  elect  a  representative  by  bal- 
lot at  a  meeting  held  for  the  purpose  on  such  day  or  days  as  the  stand- 
ing committee  hereafter  mentioned  may  fix,  in  the  montli  of  December 
in  each  year,  the  name  of  such  representative  and  of  the  works  he  rep- 
resents being  given  to  the  secretaries  on  or  before  the  1st  of  January, 
next  ensuing. 

6.  If  any  operative  representative  die  or  resign,  or  cease  to  be  qualk 
fled  by  terminating  his  connection  with  the  works  he  represents,  a  sue- 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE!  309 

cessor  shall  be  chosen  within  one  month,  in  the  same  manner  as  is  pro- 
vided In  the  case  of  annual  elections. 

7.  The  operative  representatives  so  chosen  shall  continue  in  oflSce  for 
the  calendar  year  immediately  following  their  election,  and  shall  be 
eligible  for  re-election. 

7a.  In  case  of  the  ioinJ  sioppafje  of  any  n-orks  connected  with  the 
board,  both  employer  and  operative  representatives  shall,  at  the  end  of 
one  month  from  the  date  of  such  stoppage,  cease  to  be  members  of  th& 
board,  and  of  any  committee  on  which  they  may  have  been  elected.  Any 
rarancies  so  resulting  from  this  or  any  other  cause  shall  be  filled  up  by 
the  committee  affected. 

8.  Each  representative  sh-all  be  deemed  fully  authorised  to  act  for 
the  works  which  has  elected  him.  and  the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the 
board,  or  in  case  of  equality  of  votes,  of  its  referee,  shall  be  binding 
upon  the  employers  and  operatives  of  all  loorks  connected  unth  tho 
board. 

9.  The  board  shall  meet  for  the  transaction  of  business  twice  a  year, 
in  January  and  July,  but  by  order  of  the  standing  committee  the  sec- 
retaries shall  convene  a  meeting  of  the  board  at  any  time.  The  circular 
calling  such  meeting  shall  express  in  general  terms  the  nature  of  the 
business  for  consideration. 

10.  At  the  meeting  of  the  board  to  be  held  in  January  in  each  year 
it  shall  elect  a  referee,  a  president,  and  vice-president,  two  secretaries, 
two  auditors,  and  two  treasurers,  who  shall  continue  in  office  till  the 
corresponding  meeting  of  the  following  year,  but  shall  be  eligible  for 
re-election.  The  president  and  vice-president  shall  be  ex-offlc;o  members 
of  all  committees,  but  shall  have  no  power  to  vote. 

11.  At  the  same  meeting  of  the  board  a  standing  committee  shall  be 
appointed  as  follows  :  The  employers  shall  nominate  10  of  their  num- 
ber, exclusive  of  the  president  (not  more  than  5  of  whom  shall  be 
entitled  to  vote  or  take  part  in  any  discussion  at  any  meeting  of  the 
eommittee),  and  the  operatives  5  of  their  number,  exclusive  of  the 
vice-president. 

12.  The  standing  committee  shall  meet  for  the  transaction  of  busi- 
ness prior  to  the  half-yearly  meetings,  and  in  addition  as  often  as  busi- 
ness requires.  The  time  and  place  of  meeting  shall  be  arranged  by 
the  secretaries  in  default  of  any  special  direction. 

13.  The  president  shall  preside  over  all  meetings  of  the  board,  and 
of  the  standing  committee,  except  in  cases  that  require  the  referee.  In 
the  absence  of  the  president  a  temporary  chairman,  without  a  casting 
vote,  shall  be  elected  by  the  meeting. 

14.  All  questions  requiring  investigation  shall  be  submitted  to  the 
standing  committee  or  to  the  board,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  writing,  and 
shall  be  supplemented  by  such  verbal  evidence  or  explanation  as  they 
may  think  needful. 

15.  All  question.^  shall,  in  the  first  instance,  be  referred  to  the  stand- 
ing committee,  who  shall  investigate  and  have  power  to  settle  all  mat- 
ters so  referred  to  it,  except  a  general  rise  or  fall  of  wages  or  the  aelcC' 
Hon  of  an  arbitrator  to  be  empowered  to  fix  the  same.  Before  any 
question  be  considered  by  the  standing  eommittee  an  agreement  of  suh- 
miasion  shall  be  signed  by  the  employer  and  operative  delegate  of  the 


310  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

toorl-s  affected  and  he  fjirrn  fo  the  enmmiiire.  Tn  ea.w  of  the  atandinp 
committee  faUing  to  afjrec  the  qticfition  in  dispute  shall  he  suhmitted  to 
the  referee,  tcho  shall  he  requested  to  decide  the  same,  hut  in  all  sucJi 
cases  tcitnesscs  from  all  the  works  affected  may  he  summoned  to  attend 
and  give  evidence  in  support  of  their  case. 

16.  No  suhjcet  shall  he  brought  forward  at  any  meeting  of  the  stand- 
ing committee  or  of  the  hoard  unless  notice  thereof  he  given  to  the  sec- 
retaries 7  clear  days  hefore  the  meeting  at  irhich  it  is  to  he  introduced. 

17.  All  votes  shall  be  taken  at  the  board  and  standing  committee  by 
show  of  hands,  unless  any  member  calls  for  a  ballot.  If  at  any  meet- 
ing of  the  board  the  employer  representative  or  the  operative  repre- 
sentative of  any  worlds  be  absent,  the  other  representative  of  such  works 
shall  not,  under  the  circumstances,  be  entitled  to  vote. 

18.  M'hen  the  question  is  a  general  rise  or  fall  of  tcages,  a  hoard 
meeting  shall  he  held,  at  which  the  referee  may  he  invited  to  preside, 
and  in  case  no  agreement  he  arrived  at  a  single  arbitrator  shall  he  ap- 
pointed, and  his  decision  at  or  after  a  special  arbitration  held  for  the 
purpose  shall  he  final  and  binding  on  all  parties.  The  referee  may  by 
special  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  board  he  appointed  arbitrator. 

19.  Any  expense  incurred  by  the  board  shall  be  borne  equally  by  the 
employers  and  operatives,  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  standing  com- 
mittee to  establish  the  most  convenient  arrangements  for  collecting 
what  may  be  needed  to  meet  such  expenses.  The  banking  account  of 
the  board  shall  be  kept  in  the  name  of  the  treasurers,  and  all  accountg 
shall  be  paid  by  check  signed  by  them. 

20.  The  sum  of  10s.  [.?2.4.3]  for  each  member  of  the  board  or  stand- 
ing committee  shall  be  allowed  for  each  meeting  of  the  board  or  stand- 
ing committee.  This  sum  shall  be  divided  equally  between  the  em- 
ployers and  operatives,  and  shall  be  distributed  by  each  side  in  propor- 
tion to  the  attendance  of  each  member.  In  addition,  each  member  shall 
be  allowed  traveling  expenses  at  the  rate  of  3  half-pence  [.S  cents]  per 
mile,  and  when  an  operative  member  is  engaged  on  the  night  shift  fol- 
lowing the  day  on  which  a  meeting  is  held  he  shall  be  allowed  payment 
for  a  second  shift. 

21.  The  operative  representative  shall  be  paid  for  time  lost  in  at- 
tending to  grievances  at  the  works  to  which  he  belongs  at  the  rate  of 
10s.  [$2.43]  for  each  shift  actually  and  necessarily  lost.  Should  he. 
however,  lose  more  time  than  reasonably  necessary  in  the  opinion  of  the 
manager,  the  latter  shall  fill  up  the  certificate  only  for  such  amount  as 
he  considers  due  before  signing  it.  Whatever  sum  or  sums  in  this  or 
any  other  way  be  paid  to  operative  representatives  in  excess  of  what  is 
paid  to  employer  representatives,  railway  fares  alone  excepted,  one-half 
of  such  excess  shall  concurrently  be  credited  to  the  eniiiloyers  collec- 
tively. An  account  of  attendances,  and  fees  paid  to  each  representa- 
tive shall  be  kept,  and  the  secretaries  shall  call  the  .attention  of  the 
standing  committee  to  any  case  where  the  cost  of  adjusting  disputes  at 
any  works  exceeds,  in  their  opinion,  a  proper  amount  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  operatives  employed. 

22.  Should  it  be  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  standing  commit- 
tee that  any  member  of  the  board  ha;^,  used  his  inflnenco  in  endeavorir'r 
to  prevent  the  decisions  of  the  board  or  standing  committee  from  being 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  311 

carried  out,  he  shall  forthwith  cease  to  be  a  representative,  and  shall  be 
liable  to  forfeit  any  fees  which  might  otherwise  be  due  to  him  from  the 
board. 

2.^.  If  the  employers  and  operatives  at  any  works  not  connected  with 
the  board  should  desire  to  join  the  same,  such  desire  shall  be  notified 
to  the  secretaries,  and  by  them  to  the  standing  committee,  who  shall 
have  power  to  admit  tliem  to  membership  on  being  satisfied  that  these 
rules  have  been  or  are  about  to  be  complied  with. 

24.  No  alteration  or  addition  shall  be  made  to  these  rules,  except  at 
the  meeting  of  the  board  to  be  held  in  Jr.nuary  in  each  year,  and  unless 
notice  in  writing  of  the  proposed  alteration  be  given  to  tlie  secretaries 
at  least  1  calendar  month  before  such  meeting.  The  notice  convening 
the  annual  meeting  shall  state  fully  the  nature  of  any  alteration  that 
may  be  propo^sed. 

25.  The  standing  committee  shall  have  power  to  make  from  time  to 
time  such  by-laws  as  they  may  consider  necessary,  provided  the  same 
are  not  inconsistent  with  or  at  variance  with  these  rules. 

The  board  earnestly  invites  the  attention  of  all  who  belong  to  it, 
either  as  subscribers  or  as  members,  to  the  following  instructions  : 

If  any  subscriber  to  the  board  desire  to  have  its  assistance  in  redress- 
ing any  grievance,  he  must  explain  the  matter  to  the  operative  repre- 
sentative of  the  works  at  which  he  is  employed.  Before  doing  so  he 
must,  however,  have  done  his  best  to  get  his  grievance  righted  by  see- 
ing his  foreman  or  the  manager  himself. 

The  operative  representative  must  question  the  complainant  about 
the  matter,  and  discourage  complaints  which  do  not  appear  to  be  well 
founded.  Before  taking  action,  he  must  ascertain  that  the  previous 
instruction  has  been  complied  with. 

If  there  seem  good  grounds  for  complaint,  the  complainant  and  the 
operative  representative  must  take  a  suitable  opportunity  of  laying 
the  matter  before  the  foreman,  or  works'  manager,  or  head  of  the  con- 
cern (according  to  what  may  be  the  custom  of  the  particular  works). 
Except  in  case  of  emergency,  these  complaints  shall  be  made  only  upon 
one  day  in  each  week,  the  said  day  and  time  being  fixed  by  the  manager 
of  the  works. 

The  complaint  should  be  stated  in  a  way  that  implies  an  expecta- 
tion that  it  will  be  fairly  and  fully  considered,  and  that  what  is  right 
will  be  done.  In  most  cases  this  will  lead  to  a  settlement  without  the 
matter  having  to  go  further. 

If,  however,  an  agreement  can  not  be  come  to,  a  statement  of  the 
points  in  difference  shall  be  drawn  out,  signed  by  the  employer  repre- 
sentative and  the  operative  representative,  and  forwarded  to  the  secre- 
taries of  the  board,  with  a  request  that  the  standing  committee  will  con- 
sider the  matter.  An  official  form,  on  which  complaints  may  be  stated, 
can  be  obtained  from  the  secretaries. 

It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  standing  committee  to  meet  for  this  pur- 
pose as  soon  after  the  expiration  of  seven  days  from  receipt  of  the 
notice  as  can  be  arranged,  but  not  later  than  the  first  Thursday  in  each 
month. 

It  is  not,  however,  always  possible  to  avoid  some  delay,  and  the  com- 
plainant must  not  suppose  that  he  will  necessarily  lose  anything  by  hav- 


312  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

fng  to  wait,  as  any  recommendation  of  the  standing  committee  or  an) 
decision  of  the  board  may  be  made  to  date  back  to  the  time  of  the  com- 
plaint being  sent  in. 

Above  all.  the  board  would  impress  upon  its  subscribers  that  there 
must  be  no  strike  or  suspension  of  work.  The  main  object  of  the  board 
Is  to  prevent  anything  of  this  sort,  and  if  any  strike  or  suspension  of 
work  take  place,  the  board  will  refuse  t"  inquire  into  the  matter  in  dis- 
pute till  work  is  resumed,  and  the  fact  of  its  having  been  interrupted 
will  be  taken  into  account  in  considering  the  question. 

It  is  recommended  that  any  changes  in  modes  of  working  requiring 
alterations  in  the  h^urs  of  labor,  or  a  revision  of  the  scale  of  payments, 
should  be  made  matters  of  notice,  and  as  far  as  possible,  of  arrange- 
ment beforehand,  so  as  to  avoid  needless  subsequent  disputes  as  to  what 
ought  to  be  paid. 

We  have  presented  here  an  English  agreement  as  a 
model  of  the  most  successful  form  of  collective  bargaining 
and  trade  arbitration  because  in  the  work  of  labor  organ- 
ization and  industrial  peace  England  seems  to  be  about  a 
generation  in  advance  of  the  United  States,  and  because 
the  writer  firmly  believes  that  practically  the  same  line  of 
development  will  be  followed  in  the  United  States.  But 
it  should  be  said  at  once  that  the  most  competent  author- 
ities differ  respecting  the  advisability  of  incorporating 
any  provision  for  arbitration  in  trade  agreements.  In 
England  two  such  experts  as  Beatrice  and  Sidney  Webb 
deny  that  trade  arbitration  has  any  logical  or  permanent 
place  in  the  settlement  of  labor  disputes.  In  our  country 
the  arbitration  agreement  in  the  newspaper  trade  has 
recently  been  restricted,  and  the  two  broad  interstate 
systems — those  in  the  bituminous  coal  trade  and  the 
stove  foundry  trade— which  on  the  whole  have  worked 
the  most  successfully,  depend  at  every  stage  upon  pure 
negotiation  between  equal  numbers  of  employers  and 
employees.     The  great  defect  of  trade  arbitration  is  thai 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  313 

it  tends  in  one  ^vay  to  discourage  collective  bargaining. 
It  is  an  extremely  disagreeable  task  for  the  representa- 
tives of  the  workmen  in  a  joint  conference  to  accept  terms 
which  are  unsatisfactory  to  their  constituency  ;  and  where 
a  provision  for  arbitration  exists,  these  representatives  are 
strongly  tempted  to  put  the  onus  of  disappointing  the 
workmen  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  arbitrators. 

On  the  other  hand  a  casual  reading  of  the  local  agree- 
ments published  regularl}^  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau, 
of  Labor  will  convince  the  reader  that  trade  arbitration 
for  restricted  districts  is  not  going  out  of  favor.  Not 
only  has  trade  arbitration  worked  with  conspicuous  suc- 
cess for  years  in  the  bricklaying  trade  of  New  York,  the 
building  trades  of  Boston,  and  the  shoe  manufacturing 
industry  of  Philadelphia,  but  the  New  York  building 
contractors,  in  one  conspicuous  instance,^  refused  to  bar- 
gain with  their  employees  collectively,  except  under  an 
agreement  embodying  an  arbitration  clause.  The  agree- 
ment has  since  broken  down,  it  is  true,  but  the  incident 
illustrates  how  strong  a  demand  for  arbitration  may  be 
created  by  several  years  of  industrial  war. 

Surveying  the  whole  American  experience  with  this 
problem,  and  taking  account  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
deciding  by  arbitration  broad  principles  respecting  the 
conditions  of  future  employment,  it  seems  probable  that 
collective  bargaining  without  arbitration  will  become  su- 
preme in  the  negotiations  between  national  or  interstate 


»  Spe  the  article  by  .7.  R.  Commons  in  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco 
lomics  for  May,  1904. 


314  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

associations  of  emploj-ers  and  emploj^ees,  that  the  national 
agreements  will  provide  for  local  secondary  arbitration, 
and  in  places  or  specific  trades  where  peace  is  particu- 
larly desirable,  for  certain  forms  of  primary  arbitration. 
The  development  will  be  complex,  not  simple,  because 
industrial  peace  is  much  more  desirable  in  some  trades 
than  in  others.  The  great  mass  of  factory  workers,  for 
example,  may  get  along  permanently,  perhaps,  with 
simple  collective  bargaining ;  but  the  stationary  engineers 
who  run  the  machinery  with  which  the  factory  hands 
work,  should  accept  arbitration  as  a  last  resort,  in  order 
to  remove  the  possibility  of  throwing  all  the  employees 
out  of  work ;  and  the  continuous  operation  of  the  rail- 
roads should  be  maintained,  even  if  it  necessitates  the 
introduction  of  compulsory  arbitration. 

Leaving  this  moot  question  of  arbitration  about  which 
the  most  competent  authorities  differ,  we  may  conclude 
this  section  of  the  suliject  with  a  brief  statement  of  some 
of  the  lessons  taught  by  forty  years'  experience  in  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States : 

(a)  First  and  foremost,  conciliation  and  collective  bar- 
gaining are  the  important  elements.  The  victory  is 
almost  won  when  employers  are  induced  to  lay  aside  their 
determination  to  deal  with  individuals  only,  acknowledge 
the  right  and  necessity  of  organization  among  their  work- 
men, and  join  with  the  representatives  of  their  employees 
in  a  friendly,  informal  discussion  of  differences,  (b)  The 
utility  of  arbitration  is,  as  we  have  seen,  disputable,  but 
in  any  event  it  should  never  be  employed  except  as  a  last 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  315 

resort,  (c)  Opinions  differ  whether  the  final  arbiter 
should  be  an  expert  in  the  industry  or  a  judicially  minded 
"outsider,"  but  experience  demonstrates  that  in  either 
ease  he  should  be  selected  in  advance.  The  reason  for  this 
is  obvious,  (d)  No  stoppage  of  work  must  be  permitted 
pending  the  decision  of  a  dispute.  To  say  nothing  of  the 
loss  involved,  peaceful  settlement  becomes  infinitely  more 
difficult  after  the  pride  and  fighting  spirit  of  the  two 
sides  has  been  aroused  by  an  open  rupture.  The  Feder- 
ated Association  of  Boot  and  Shoe  Manufacturers  of 
Great  Britain  and  the  National  Union  of  Boot  and  Shoe 
Operatives  post  a  forfeit  of  £500  each  to  indemnify  the 
other  side  for  loss  occasioned  by  a  strike  declared  by  the 
workmen  or  a  lockout  declared  by  the  employers,  (e) 
The  requirement  of  a  month's  notice  or  more  of  any 
demand  for  extensive  changes  in  the  employment  con- 
tract, has  proved  extremely  efficacious  in  preventing 
impulsive  action.  The  first  section  of  the  agreement 
between  the  Tyne,  Wear,  Tees  and  Hartlepool  Ship- 
builders and  the  Executive  Council  of  the  Boiler  Makers 
and  Iron  and  Steel  Shipbuilders'  Society  provides  that 
no  general  alteration  of  wages  shall  be  made  until  after 
six  calendar  months  have  elapsed  from  the  date  of  the 
last  alteration,  and  that  no  single  alteration  shall  exceed 
five  per  cent.  (f)  Generally,  collective  bargaining 
requires  strong  and  widespread  organization  among  both 
the  employers  and  the  workmen.  The  trade  union  must 
be  powerful  enough  to  hold  its  men  to  their  contracts. 
The  employers'  association  must  be  inclusive  enough  to 


316  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

control  the  leading;  establishments  whose  terms  of  empIoy« 
ment  fix  the  standards  for  the  industry,  (g)  The  greatest 
result  accomplished  by  conciliation  is  the  creation  of 
mutual  trust  and  respect  between  the  representatives  of 
labor  and  capital.  In  the  accomplishment  of  these  ends 
it  is  plainly  desirable :  ( a )  that  the  same  representatives 
should  be  retained  by  both  sides  as  long  as  possible,  (y8) 
that  these  representatives  should  come  fully  empowered 
to  conclude  binding  contracts,  (  y)  and  that  the  meetinga 
should  be  as  frequent  and  as  informal  as  possible. 
"When  the  cigars  are  lit  and  the  representatives  of  the 
two  interests  get  their  feet  under  the  same  table,  nothing 
can  prevent  the  consummation  of  a  peaceable  agreement. " 
(h)  Finally,  it  should  be  noticed,  that  the  most  efficient 
boards  almost  always  have  a  sub-committee  consisting  of 
or  controlled,  by,  the  presidents,  secretaries  or  other  expert 
officials  of  the  two  organizations,  who  are  empowered  to 
manage,  and  often  to  settle,  disputes  arising  out  of  the 
interpretation  of  the  general  contracts  adopted  by  col- 
lective bargaining.  Two  competent  and  well-disposed 
officials  of  this  kind  can,  and  often  do,  by  their  own 
exertions,  maintain  peace  and  good  feeling  in  the  indus- 
try for  years. 

8.  Statistics  of  Collective  Bargaining  and  Trade  Arhi' 
tration:  The  extent  of  the  work  done  by  the  private 
agencies  of  industrial  peace  in  the  United  States,  can  not 
be  measured  even  approximately,  although  it  is  undoubt- 
edly enormous.  Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  system, 
however,  may  be  gathered  from  the  trade  agreements 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  317 

published  regularly  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of 
Labor,  and  from  the  detailed  descriptions  in  the  Reports 
of  the  Industrial  Commission/  which  the  reader  is  advised 
to  consult. 

In  Great  Britain  conciliation  and  arbitration  is  much 
more  extensive,  and  we  have  much  more  satisfactory  data  , 
relating  to  its  results  and  accomplishments.  In  1903 
there  were  at  least  73  permanent  boards  of  conciliation 
and  arbitration,  which  dealt  with  1,633  cases,  and  settled 
788—506  by  conciliation  and  282  by  arbitration.  A  more 
striking  evidence  of  the  influence  of  conciliation  and  arbi- 
tration, however,  is  found  in  the  number  of  strikes.  Al- 
though quite  as  large  a  proportion  of  the  working  classes 
are  organized  in  Great  Britain  as  in  the  United  States, 
there  were  only  387  strikes  in  the  whole  United  Kingdom 
in  1903,  involving  116,901  persons,— fewer  strikes  and 
strikers  than  in  the  city  of  Chicago  alone,  for  the  same 
year. 

By  far  the  best  indication  of  the  importance  of  col- 
lective bargaining,  conciliation  and  arbitration  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  is  found  in  the  statistics  of  the  methods 
by  which  changes  of  wages  are  accomplished  there.  The 
proportion  of  such  changes  made  without  recourse  to 
strikes  or  lockouts,  is  the  best  index  of  the  success  of  these 
agencies  of  industrial  peace.  From  the  statistics  pub- 
lished in  the  following  table  it  appears  that  considerably 
more  than  90  per  cent,  of  the  readjustments  of  the  terms 
of  employment  in  the  United  Kingdom  are  regularly 

1  Vol.  XVII,  Pt.  Ill,  ch.  I,  II. 


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THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  319 

accomplished  by  sliding  scales,  conciliation,  arbitration 
and  other  forms  of  peaceable  bargaining.  The  strike 
problem  seems  to  be  approaching  a  solution  in  the  United 
Kingdom ;  and  if  some  certain  preventative  of  strikes  on 
railroads  and  in  other  (inasi-piiblic  industries  existed,  the 
conditions  and  tendencies  in  the  United  Kingdom  could 
be  regarded  as  satisfactory. 

9.  Compulsory  Arbitration  in  New  Zealand:  The 
celebrated  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Act  of  New  Zea- 
land,^ which  has  since  been  substantially  copied  in  West 
Australia  and  New  South  ^A'^ales,  was  passed  August  31, 
1894,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  its  author,  Mr.  "W.  P. 
Reeves,  who  was  at  that  time  Minister  of  Labor  of  New 
Zealand. 

The  machinery  of  the  New  Zealand  system  is  simple. 
The  colony  is  divided  into  eight  industrial  districts- 
competitive  zones— for  each  of  which  there  is  an  ordinary 
Board  of  Conciliation.  For  the  colony  as  a  whole  there  is 
a  final  Court  of  Arbitration  appointed  by  the  governor, 
one  member  from  nominees  of  the  labor  unions,  one  mem- 
ber from  nominees  of  the  employers'  unions  and  a  third 
—the  president  of  the  court— from  the  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  Employees  desiring  to  bring  a  dispute 
before  either  a  Board  or  the  Court  must  form  an  ' '  indus- 
trial union"  and  register  under  the  act.  Seven  em- 
ployees are  sufficient  to  form  such  a  union.     Disputes 

'  A  reprint  of  the  ]aw,  as  later  amended  and  consolidated,  may  be 
found  in  Bulletin  of  the  (U.  S.)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  49,  preceded 
<j  tv'hat  is.  on  the  wTiole,  the  l)pst  short  discussion  of  its  operation  and 
effects,  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Victor  S.  Clarli. 


320  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

may  be  taken  directly  to  the  Court,  but  ordinarily  they  go 
first  to  a  Board  of  Conciliation.  If  the  Board  is  tactful 
enough  to  bring  about  a  compromise,  this  agreement  is 
recorded  and  has  all  the  binding  force  of  a  compulsory 
award.  If  the  parties  can  not  be  brought  to  an  amicable 
agreement,  the  Board  makes  an  initial  award— a  "recom- 
mendation"— which  becomes  compulsory  if  an  appeal  is 
not  taken  within  one  month  to  the  Court  of  Arbitration. 
The  latter  is  much  what  its  name  implies,  a  court,  with 
unusual  jurisdiction  and  power.  Proceedings  before  it 
are  very  simple :  no  lawyer  is  allowed  to  plead  before  it 
except  by  unanimous  consent  of  all  parties.  But  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  court  covers  every  sort  of  dispute  (not 
involving  a  crime)  that  may  arise  between  workmen  and 
their  employers,  and  within  that  sphere  the  court  is  abso- 
lute :  it  legislates  upon  wages,  apprenticeship,  hours  of 
labor,  and  then  in  turn  punishes  the  breach  or  neglect  of 
its  own  laws,  and  its  decisions,  says  the  law,  are  not 
''liable  to  be  challenged,  appealed  against,  reviewed, 
quashed,  or  called  in  question  by  any  court  of  judicature 
on  any  account  whatsoever." 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  strikes  are  prevented.  As  soon  as 
an  application  for  the  settlement  of  a  dispute  has  been 
made,  and  until  the  award  is  granted,  "any  thing  in  the 
nature  of  a  strike  or  lockout"  becomes  unlawful,  and 
unions  or  persons  violating  this  provision  are  liable  to  a 
summary  penalty  of  £50.  Awards  or  agreements  are 
rendered  for  specific  periods  of  time,  but  they  remain  in 
force   indefinitely    until   replaced   by    other   awards   or 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  321 

agreements.  For  the  breach  of  an  award  the  Court  may 
impose  a  fine  not  exceeding  £500  upon  any  employer  or 
union,  and  if  the  union  of  workers  has  not  sufficient 
funds,  may  fine  individual  members  in  a  sum  not  exceed- 
ing £10.  Under  ordinary  circumstances,  however,  no 
attempt  is  made  after  the  award  is  granted,  to  prevent  the 
employer  from  discharging  workmen,  or  individual  work- 
men from  leaving  the  employer.  Immediately  after  a 
recent  award,  the  manufacturer  in  question  discharged 
seventeen  workmen,  and  the  Court  decided  that  this  did 
not  constitute  a  breach.  During  this  trial,  however,  the 
Court  stated  that  any  strike  or  lockout  during  the  life  of 
an  award  would  be  punished  as  a  breach,  but  very  prop- 
erly reserved  the  right  to  decide  what  constitutes  a  strike 
or  lockout.  This  dual  right  to  quit  work  or  discharge 
workmen  in  the  face  of  an  award  has  been  denominated  a 
*  *  fatal  flaw ' '  in  the  New  Zealand  system,  but  the  position 
of  the  Court  is  entirely  logical.  As  pointed  out  on  page 
176,  the  quittance  of  work  by  a  number  of  wage-earners 
is  not  a  strike,  the  discharge  of  a  number  of  wage-earners 
not  a  lockout.  And  it  is  only  the  strike  and  the  lockout 
which  we  wish  to  prevent.  Finally — and  this  considera- 
tion seems  decisive — the  Court  is  empowered  to  decide 
absolutely  what  constitutes  a  breach,  and  if  at  any  time 
its  decisions  seem  in  danger  of  being  evaded,  may  enforce 
them  just  as  rigidly  and  strictly  as  it  desires. 

The  Court,  while  nominally  a  judicial  body,  in  reality 
legislates   upon   terms   of   employment   throughout   the 
whole  colony.     This  appears  from  the  nature  and  scope 
21 


322  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

of  its  awards,  (a)  The  latter  cover  all  points  involved 
in  controversies  concerning  the  hours  of  labor,  labor  of 
women  and  children,  proportion  of  apprentices,  introduc- 
tion of  labor-saving  maehinerj^  preference  of  union  over 
non-union  employees,  and  wages.  The  wage  awards 
usually  prescribe  minimum  rates  with  permission,  under 
strict  supervision,  to  pay  less  to  old  men  and  relatively 
incompetent  workmen.  The  decisions  giving  preference 
to  unionists  and  those  regulating  the  proportion  of  ap- 
prentices have  perhaps  aroused  the  deepest  resentment 
and  criticism  from  employers.  On  the  whole  these 
awards  have  been  conservative  in  the  best  sense.  It  is 
clearly  seen  and  candidly  admitted  that  nothing  can  save 
the  system  if  the  awards  either  oppress  labor  or  repress 
industry  unnecessarily,  and  the  Court  seems  to  have  been 
guided  by  a  conscientious  effort  to  grant  wage-earners  the 
most  liberal  terms  consistent  with  the  healthy  and  unin- 
terrupted growth  of  the  industries  of  the  colonies. 

(b)  When  an  award  favorable  to  the  employees  is 
granted,  it  is  plainly  necessary  that  the  employer  in- 
volved should  not  be  placed  at  a  disadvantage  in  compet- 
ing with  his  natural  rivals.  For  this  reason  awards  now 
apply  not  only  to  the  employer  and  union  involved  in  the 
original  dispute,  but  to  every  employer  and  employee  in 
the  same  industry  within  the  industrial  district  for  which 
the  award  was  rendei'ed.  And  wlien  desirable  the  award 
may  be  made  binding  upon  the  given  industry  through- 
out the  whole  colony,  or  upon  those  "related  industries" 
which  are  so  connected  with  the  original  industry  that 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  323 

matters  relating  to  the  one  may  affect  the  other.  For 
example,  the  building  industries  are  declared  to  be  so 
related.  The  result  of  these  provisions  is  that  once  a  dis- 
pute is  taken  up,  it  is  certain  "to  lead  to  the  enactment  of 
legally  binding  'common  rules'  for  the  whole  trade." 

The  most  apparent  defect  of  the  New  Zealand  system  is  \ 
its  dependence  upon  organized  labor.  Neither  the  Court 
nor  a  Board  can  settle  a  dispute  on  its  own  initiative; 
neither  employees  nor  employer  can  refer  a  dispute  un- 
less the  employees  are  organized.  This  seems  one-sided. 
Seven  workmen  may  form  a  union  and  force  their  em- 
ployer to  arbitrate  a  demand  for  higher  wages,  but  an 
employer  cannot  force  his  workmen  to  arbitrate  a  de- 
mand for  reduction  unless  they  are  already  organized. 
Again,  while  a  union  of  workers  cannot  escape  the  obli- 
gations of  an  award  by  simply  disbanding,  it  can  prevent 
the  prolongation  of  an  award  beyond  its  specified  term— 
which  cannot  exceed  three  years— by  cancelling  its  regis- 
tration. The  whole  system,  then,  seems  dependent  upon 
the  good-will  of  organized  labor,  since  the  workers  may 
leave  Boards  and  Court  helpless,  wholly  without  jurisdic- 
tion, as  soon  as  it  becomes  proiitahle  on  the  whole  to  dis- 
hand  the  unio7is.  The  usual  answer  to  the  criticism  is 
suggested  by  the  italicized  words.  ' '  It  will  never  become 
profitable  to  the  wage-earners  to  disband  the  unions. 
And  moreover  the  employer  is  well  able  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion himself  when  the  dispute  is  with  unorganized 
labor. ' '  The  answer  is  hardly  convincing,  but  this  defect 
has  caused  no  trouble  up  to  the  present  time  and  could  be 


324  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

remedied,  as  it  lias  been  in  New  South  Wales,  by  a  slight 
change  in  the  wording  of  the  law. 

Compulsory  arbitration  has  worked  well  in  New  Zea- 
land :  since  its  introduction  only  four  or  five  unimportant 
strikes  have  taken  place,  sweating  seems  to  have  been 
practically  eradicated,  the  decisions  of  the  Court,  with  a 
few  trivial  exceptions,  have  been  loyally  obeyed,  and  the 
industry  of  the  colony  has  grow^n  enormously.  The 
wage-earning  classes  are  enthusiastic  supporters  of  the 
system;  and  if,  as  Dr.  Clark  shows,  a  majority  of  the 
employers  are  vigorously  opposed  to  the  present  law,  an 
equal  majority,  as  Judge  Backhouse  makes  clear,  have 
been  converted  to  the  general  principle  of  compulsory 
arbitration. 

But  the  experiment  is  not  a  decisive  one ;  not  decisive 
yet  even  for  New  Zealand,  and  certainly  not  decisive  for 
older  countries.  Since  the  introduction  of  compulsory 
arbitration,  New  Zealand  has  enjoyed  a  period  of  unusual 
and  uninterrupted  industrial  prosperity  which  is  cer- 
tainly not  due  exclusively  to  the  arbitration  law,  and  in 
consequence  of  which,  almost  all  the  awards  have  been 
favorable  to  the  demands  of  the  workmen.  Eecalling  the 
dependence  of  the  system  upon  the  good  will  of  organized 
labor,  one  cannot  help  doubting  whether  the  system  will 
work  as  smoothly  when  the  inevitable  period  of  depres- 
sion sets  in.  Moreover,  when  compulsory  arbitration  was 
introduced,  the  industrial  system  of  New  Zealand  was 
simple,  pliable  and  adaptable.  This  is  strikingly  illus- 
trated by  the  fact— not  mentioned  by  the  enthusiastic  ad« 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  325 

mirer  of  the  compulsory  arbitration  law  who  asserted  that 
it  had  made  New  Zealand  "a  country  without  strikes"— 
that  in  the  two  years  preceding  its  passage  there  were 
only  about  four  unimportant  strikes  recorded  in  the  col- 
ony. A  majority  of  the  disinterested  students  of  the 
New  Zealand  law  undoubtedly  believe  that  it  will  be  a 
permanent  success.  But  the  facts  recited  above  make  it 
questionable  whether  the  system  can  endure  a  protracted 
period  of  industrial  depression,  make  it  questionable 
whether  the  system  will  work  even  in  New  Zealand  when 
the  industrial  fabric  has  become  at  once  more  complex 
and  more  sensitive,  and  make  it  still  more  questionable 
whether  the  system  can  be  successfully  introduced  in  the 
United  States,  where  industrial  relations  are  more  com- 
plex, and  the  legal  system  at  the  same  time  cumbersome, 
rigid  and  uncertain. 

10.  Compulsory  Arbitration  in  the  United  States: 
In  the  preceding  paragraphs  we  have  traced  in  their  gen- 
eral historical  sequence,  the  development  of  the  various 
agencies  of  industrial  peace.  It  remains  to  call  attention 
to  the  latest  development  in  this  subject,  a  development  of 
doctrine  only,  but  one  of  great  significance. 

Without  going  into  details  it  may  be  said  at  once  that 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  our  people  oppose  the  prop- 
osition to  introduce  any  complete  system  of  compulsory 
arbitration  into  the  United  States,  while  the  consensus  of 
opinion  among  the  students  of  this  subject  is  that  any 
such  system  would  prove  at  once  unworkable  and  uncon- 
stitutional.    These  facts  open  up  a  dismal  prospect,  bo 


326  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

cause  collective  bargaining  and  trade  arbitration,  wlii&li 
undoubtedly  must  do  the  detailed  work  and  bear  the 
greater  burdens  of  maintaining  industrial  peace,  have 
two  signal  defects:  they  require  for  their  general  intro- 
duction a  long  educational  process  during  which  the  pub- 
lic can  ill  afford  to  be  wholly  passive,  and  they  never  pro- 
vide that  certain  preventive  of  strikes  which  is  required 
in  some  industries.  We  can  tolerate  the  prospect  of 
strikes  on  a  small  scale  in  competitive  industries,  until 
labor  and  capital  shall  have  been  educated  up  to  collec- 
tive bargaining  and  trade  arbitration,  but  we  can  not  and 
should  not,  as  a  people,  tolerate  the  possibility  of  a  repe 
tition  of  the  Chicago  railway  strike  of  1894,  or  the  anthra 
cite  coal  strike  of  1902.  This  expresses,  or  connotes,  in 
brief,  what  we  have  called  the  latest  development  in  this 
subject :  the  growth  of  a  strong  demand  among  the  most 
thorough  students  of  the  labor  problem  in  this  country, 
for  legal  regulations  that  will  prevent  strikes  and  lock- 
outs in  those  monopolistic  industries  upon  whose  contin- 
uous operation  the  public  welfare  intimately  depends. 
The  justice  of  this  demand  is  plain :  its  expediency  and 
practicability  require  further  discussion. 

The  legal  difficulties  in  the  way  of  general  compulsory 
arbitration  grow  out  of  what  is  known  as  the  constitu- 
tional right  of  the  freedom  of  contract.  Under  ordinary 
circumstances  men  have  a  right  to  buy  or  sell  labor  with- 
out let  or  hindrance,  and  this  right  can  not  be  infringed 
by  anything  short  of  a  constitutional  amendment.  Basing 
their  decisions  upon  this  broad  doctrine,  our  courts  have 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  327 

been  forced,  for  instance,  to  annul  as  unconstitutional 
such  generally  desirable  measures  as  laws  prohibiting 
truck  payment  and  company  stores.  This  doctrine  of 
freedom  of  contract,  then,  would  plainly  prevent  the  in- 
troduction of  any  law  which  empowered  a  court  of  arbi- 
tration to  dictate  to  the  employer  what  he  could  pay  and 
to  the  employee  what  wages  he  could  accept. 

There  is,  however,  a  striking  and  important  exception 
to  the  doctrine  above  described.  For  centuries  the  legis- 
lature has  possessed  the  right  to  regulate  the  prices 
charged  for  goods  or  services  absolutely  essential  to  the 
public  welfare,  when  the  supply  of  those  goods  or  services 
was  in  the  hands  of  a  virtual  monopoly.  Thus  the  legis- 
lature regulates  railway  rates,  elevator  charges,  and  even 
in  certain  cases  the  price  of  bread.  The  theory  is  that 
these  services  or  commodities  are  absolutely  necessary  to 
the  public  welfare  or  convenience,  and  offer  to  the  combi- 
nations that  control  them  exceptional  means  of  exploiting 
the  public,  to  prevent  which  the  state  must  step  in  and 
fix  certain  maximum  rates  or  charges.  If  the  legislature 
may  regulate  prices  in  order  to  protect  the  public,  cer- 
tainly it  may  require  the  continuous  operation  of  these 
industries  in  order  to  protect  the  public.  In  other  words, 
it  may  take  any  necessary  means  to  prevent  the  cessation 
of  the  industry  by  strikes  or  lockouts. 

The  legislature,  then,  undoubtedly  has  the  legal  power 
to  establish  compulsory  arbitration  for  those  industries, 
which,  in  the  language  of  the  law,  are  said  to  be  "affected 
with  a  public  use  or  interest. "     It  is  interesting  to  note 


328  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

also  that  compulsory  arbitration  when  applied  to  these 
industries  would  not  be  confronted  with  the  economic 
dangers  and  disadvantages  which  attach  to  a  general  sys- 
tem of  compulsory  arbitration.  The  essential  attribute  of 
industries  affected  wdth  a  public  interest— or  quasi-public 
industries,  as  they  are  frequently  called— is  the  element 
of  monopoly.  Now  the  factor  which  hopelessly  compli- 
cates general  compulsory  arbitration  is  the  necessity  of 
maintaining  the  competitive  status  quo,  of  extending  the 
award  to  the  whole  industry  and  bringing  under  the  same 
regulation  every  competitor  of  the  original  employer.  In 
a  monopolistic  industry  this  necessity  does  not  exist.  It 
stands  in  a  sphere  of  its  own.  If  necessary  and  desirable 
an  increase  of  wages  may  be  met  with  a  summary  increase 
of  prices. 

The  limitations  of  space  forbid  any  adequate  discussion 
here  of  the  details  of  this  scheme  of  limited  compulsory 
arbitration,  although  as  this  is  a  question  of  what  is  prac- 
ticable, rather  than  of  what  is  desirable,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  the  details  are  all  important.  The  writer  be- 
lieves that  a  law  incorporating  the  following  provisions 
would  be  at  once  constitutional  and  workable  : 

A.  The  law  to  apply  to  specific  industries  affected 
"with  a  public  use,"  and  to  specific  public  service  corpo- 
rations. Franchises  granted  to  such  corporations  in  the 
future,  to  contain  a  clause  requiring  conditions  of  em- 
ployment to  be  settled  as  follows  •} 

^  Several  cities,  including  Galesburg,  Illinois,  and  Seattle,  Washing- 
ton, have  already  incorporated  clauses  requirinR  labor  disputes  to  be 
settled  by  arbitration,  in  franchises  granted  to  street  railway  companies. 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  329 

B.  Conditions  of  employment  to  be  fixed  for  annual 
periods,  some  time  in  advance,  by  collective  bargaining 
between  representatives  of  the  employers  and  employees. 
as  provided  in  the  Victorian  Wage  Boards  (described  on 
page  496),  Where  either  side  refuses  to  elect  represent- 
atives, or  the  representatives  refuse  to  elect  a  standing 
arbiter  or  arbiters,  such  officials  to  be  appointed  by  the 
Governor  or  by  the  courts. 

C.  Employment  in  such  industries  or  service  to  be  by 
individual  enlistment  or  contract  for  a  protracted  period, 
say  three  months.  Employers  and  employees  to  post 
bonds  for  the  faithful  performance  of  all  agreements. 
The  bond  of  the  employees  to  be  accumulated  by  retain- 
ing a  percentage  of  their  wages,  as  is  done  in  the  trade 
agreement  between  Wichert  and  Gardiner,  of  Brooklyn, 
and  the  Independent  Union  of  Shoe  Workers  of  Greater- 
New  York  and  Vicinity.^ 

D.  Strikes,  picketing  and  boycotts  among  such  em- 
ployees to  be  punished  as  criminal  conspiracies,  and  spe- 
cial protection  to  be  afforded  the  employer  in  case  of 
strikes  by  police,  militia  and  injunctions. 

E.  Lockouts  to  be  declared  illegal,  with  provision  for 

The  franchise  granted  to  the  Seattle  Electric  Company,  June  26,  1901, 
provides  : 

"That  if  any  dispute  shall  at  any  time  arise  between  the  said  grantee, 
Its  successors  or  assigns,  and  its  or  their  employees,  as  to  any  matter 
of  employment  or  wages,  such  dispute  shall  be  submitted  to  arbitration. 
The  grantee,  its  successors  and  assigns,  and  their  employees  shall  be 
parties  to  any  submission,  and  shall  be  entitled  to  be  heard  by  the  arbi- 
trators, and  any  award  when  made  shall  be  bipding  and  conclusive  for 
the  period  of  one  year  from  its  date,  upon  the  grantee,  its  successors 
and  assigns,  and  upon  their  employees." 

1  See  Svrternth  Annual  Report  of  the  (New  York)  Bureau  of  Mediation 
and  Arbitration,  p.  21. 


330  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

the  appointment  of  a  receiver  for  the  industry  when  its 
operation  is  discontinued. 

To  discuss  the  probable  working  of  such  a  scheme  in 
this  place  is  impossible.  In  judging  of  its  practicability, 
however,  the  reader  is  requested  to  consider  carefully  the 
validity  of  the  following  propositions:  (a)  That  while 
individuals  have  a  constitutional  right  to  quit  work  when 
not  under  contract,  they  have  no  right  to  quit  work  in 
concert  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  a  law;  and  a  similar 
proposition  ought  to  hold  good  for  lockouts,  which  when 
ordered  by  the  officers  of  a  corporation  amount  to  con- 
spiracies, (b)  That  the  logic  which  justifies  the  regula- 
tion of  monopolistic  rates  or  charges,  justifies  even  more 
completely  any  regulation  required  to  maintain  the  con- 
tinuous operation  of  monopolistic  industries,  such  as  are 
included  in  this  scheme,  (c)  That  the  successful  main- 
tenance of  strikes  depends  largely  upon  public  sympathy 
and  support,  which  would  be  converted  into  vehement 
opposition  to  any  body  of  workers  who  refused  to  accept 
the  decision  of  an  impartial  judge  or  tribunal,  (d^ 
Finally,  that  this  is  a  scheme  for  compulsory  collective 
bargaining,  rather  than  compulsory  arbitration.  The 
arbiter  or  board  of  arbiters  would  be  specially  elected  for 
each  industry,  so  as  to  prevent  overwork  ;  and  they  would 
probably  be  called  upon  only  in  exceptional  cases.  In 
these  cases  the  decision  would  probably  carry  an  irresist- 
able  weight,  for,  as  Professor  Ely  says,  referring  to  a 
somewhat  different  proposal,  "a  board  with  such  powers 
would  be  comparable  in  its  importance  with  the  Supreme 


THE  AGENCIES  OF  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  331 

Court  of  the  United  States,  and  if  it  were  established  it  is 
to  be  supposed  that  men  of  like  integrity  and  capacity 
would  be  appointed."^ 

In  the  end  the  question  simmers  down  to  this :  Must 
the  American  democracy  acknowledge  that  it  is  con- 
fronted with  a  serious  industrial  evil  which  it  can  not 
control  because  of  legal  obstacles  and  administrative 
weakness  ?     We  do  not  believe  that  it  must. 

References  :  On  the  subjeots  discussed  in  this  chapter,  the  reader 
will  find  a  wealth  of  information  and  a  thorough  and  scholarly  dis- 
cussion in  the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XVII,  Pt.  Ill, 
and  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  833-862.  In  Mr.  N.  P.  Gilman's  recent  book,  cited 
below,  comprehensive  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  is  given,  accom- 
panied by  suggestive  bibliographical  notes  to  which  the  reader  is  re- 
ferred. Trade  agreements  are  published  regularly  in  the  bulletins  of 
the  national.  New  Yorl?,  and  Massachusetts  labor  bureaus:  while  the 
Monthly  Hcricw  of  the  yational  Ciric  Federation  might  well  be  called 
the  official  organ  of  industrial  peace. 

Supplementary  Readinos  : 

1.  "History    of    Industrial    Conciliation    and    Arbitration    in    Eu- 

rope," E.  R.  L.  Gould,  in  the  Peport  of  the  Congress  on 
Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  (Chicago,  1894). 

2.  "Governmental   Arbitration    in   the   United    States,"   Report  of 

the  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  ci-cix. 

3.  The  Limitations  of  Private  Arbitration,   Webb,   Industrial  De- 

mocracy, ch.  Ill,  pp.  222-246. 

4.  Collective  Bargaining,  Final  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commis- 

sion, pp.  833-847. 

5.  "Rights  and   Duties  of  the   Public,"   Gilman,    Methods  of  In- 

dustrial Peace,  ch.  IX,  pp.  277-284. 

6.  "Is   Authoritative  Arbitration   Inevitable?" 

(a)    Clark,  Political  Science  Quarterly,  Vol.  17,  pp.  553-567. 

(&)  Adams,  "Publicity  as  Opposed  to  Compulsory  Arbitration" 
in  the  Industrial  Conference  of  the  National  Civic  Fed- 
eration. 1902.  pp.  58-78. 

(c)  Giiman,  "The  Case  for  Legal  Regulation,"  Methods  of  In- 
dustrial Peace,  ch.  XV,  pp.  401-408. 

^Evolution  of  Industrial  Society,  p.  384, 


332  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

7.  Limits  of  Compulsory  Arbitrntion   in  tlie  T'nited  States.     Ely, 

Evolution    of    Industrial    Society,    Pt.    II.,    ch    X,    pp. 
374-397. 

8.  Organized  Labor  and  Compulsory  Arbitration,  Mitchell,  Organ- 

ized Labor,  ch.  XXXVIII,  pp.  337-346. 

0.  Compulsory  Arbitration  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  as  de- 
scribed by  the  author  of  the  first  compulsory  law: 
Reeves,  State  Experiments  in  Australia  and  A'eto  Zea 
:and,  V^ol.  I,  pp.  59-181. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PROFIT   SHARING 

One  of  the  most  important  remedies  proposed  for  the 
5vils  of  the  present  labor  situation,  and  one  which,  in  the 
past,  has  received  the  commendation  of  philanthropists 
and  economists,  is  profit  sharing.  As  defined  by  the  In- 
ternational Cooperative  Congress  in  1897,  profit  sharing 
is  "the  agreement,  freely  entered  into,  by  which  the  em- 
ployee receives  a  share,  fixed  in  advance,  of  the  profits.'* 
If  the  portion  to  be  distributed  were  not  determined  be- 
forehand, the  share  assigned  the  employees  would  be 
simply  a  gift.  It  is  not,  however,  necessary  that  the  per- 
centage of  the  profits  to  be  distributed  should  be  known  to 
the  workmen,  and  sometimes,  for  business  reasons,  it  is 
concealed. 

This  system  should  be  clearly  distinguished  from  those 
related  forms  of  remuneration  in  addition  to  wages  which 
depend  upon  some  other  factor  than  net  profits.  Under 
gain  sharing,  for  instance,  "the  amount  of  the  bonus  is 
proportionate  to  the  'gain,'  or  saving  in  cost  of  produc- 
tion, irrespective  of  the  rate  of  profit  realized  by  the 
employer. ' '  It  seems  best,  also,  to  exclude  from  this  con- 
sideration of  profit  sharing  any  study  of  the  system,  still 
extensively  employed  in  the  fishing  industry,  under  which 

sas 


334  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  reward  of  the  fisherman  is  dependent  upon  the  catch, 
and  thus  a  share  in  profits  is  partially  or  wholly  substi- 
tuted for  wages.  Consideration  will  be  given  simply  to 
the  plan  of  paying  to  the  employees  a  share  of  profits  in 
addition  to  wages.  Moreover,  it  has  been  necessary  to 
exclude  the  large  number  of  employers'  welfare  institu- 
tions, which  embody  profit  sharing  in  the  form  of  favor- 
able conditions,  instead  of  in  extra  payment  of  money. 
Though  these  have  become  increasingly  popular  in  recent 
years,  they  are  rarely  claimed  to  rest  upon  any  economic 
basis  such  as  would  entitle  them  to  general  application. 

Profit  sharing,  then,  involves  no  radical  change  in  the 
wage  system,  but  is  merely  a  modification  of  that  system. 
Moreover,  it  is  not  in  any  way  dependent  upon  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  injustice  in  the  present  distribution  of 
wealth.  In  fact,  its  ablest  advocates  usually  contend  that 
it  is  not  primaril}'  a  means  of  equalizing  wealth,  but  is 
rather  a  method  of  increasing  the  total  product  of  indus- 
try and  thereby  of  benefiting  both  employer  and  em- 
ployee. Though  it  is  claimed  that  profit  sharing  elevates 
the  material  and  moral  standards  of  the  working  people, 
it  is  even  more  vigorously  claimed  that  it  increases  the 
quantity  and  the  quality  of  the  product,  that  it  induces 
greater  care  of  implements  and  of  materials,  and  that  it 
promotes  industrial  peace  and  good-will.  In  essence 
paternalistic,  it  is  said  to  have  the  advantage  of  preserv- 
ing all  the  motives  of  enterprise  on  the  part  of  the  em- 
ployer and  at  the  same  time  of  arousing  new  motives  of 
enterprise  on  the  part  of  the  employee. 


PROFIT   SHARING  335 

That  the  profit  which  is  shared  must  itself  be  created 
by  the  increased  care  and  diligence  of  the  employee  is, 
indeed,  the  economic  basis  of  profit  sharing.  For  in- 
creased direct  productivity,  however,  there  may  be  substi- 
tuted immunity  from  strikes  and  other  labor  disturb- 
ances, and  the  benefits  of  greater  permanence  in  the 
working  force,  due  to  the  lessening  of  discontent  and  to 
the  growth  of  a  personal  interest  in  the  prosperity  of 
the  business.  As  the  system  is  an  industrial  but  not  a 
commercial  partnership,  the  employee  can  not  reasonably 
be  expected  to  share  in  losses,  which  depend  largely  and 
often  chiefly  upon  skill  in  commercial  management. 
Moreover,  the  lack  of  the  expected  bonus  in  bad  years 
may  be  considered  to  be  in  itself  the  employees'  share  of 
losses. 

1.  Methods  of  Profit  Sharing:  Plans  of  profit  shar- 
ing are,  in  detail,  almost  as  numerous  as  establishments 
adopting  the  system.  Three  principal  methods,  however, 
are  employed,  (a)  cash  payments,  at  the  end  of  a  fixed 
period,  (b)  deferred  participation  by  mean's  of  a  savings 
bank  deposit,  provident  fund  or  annuity,  and  (c)  pay- 
ment in  shares  of  stock  of  the  company.  In  England  and 
the  United  States  a  cash  bonus  is  paid  in  the  great  major- 
ity of  cases,  though  not  infrequently  part  of  the  bonus  is 
reserved  for  deferred  participation  or  profit  sharing  by 
means  of  stock  ownership.  In  France,  on  the  other  hand, 
deferred  participation  is  the  rule,  though  it  is  often  com- 
bined with  small  cash  payments  or  with  payments  in 
stock.     Throughout  Europe,  in  fact,  one  of  the  most  im- 


336  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

portant  motives  for  the  adoption  of  profit  sharing  has 
been  the  desire  to  provide  for  old  age  and  disability. 
Recently,  the  payment  of  the  employee's  dividend  wholly 
or  partially  in  stock  has  become  a  favorite  method  with 
successful  profit  sharing  firms  in  the  United  States. 

(a)  Cash  Bonus:  The  simple  cash  bonus,  such  as  that  of 
the  Bourne  Mills  of  Fall  River,  Massachusetts,  is  the  most 
obvious  and  direct  method  of  profit  sharing,  and  is  aimed 
to  produce  greater  diligence  and  care  in  the  employees 
rather  than  to  provide  for  their  future.  Out  of  eighty- 
five  cases  of  profit  sharing  in  England  in  1903,  sixty  paid 
the  bonus  wholly  in  cash,  and  fifteen  paid  it  partly  in 
cash  and  partly  in  a  provident  fund.  In  France,  on  the 
other  hand,  out  of  one  hundred  and  seven  cases  of  profit 
sharing  in  1892,  in  only  twenty-nine  was  the  bonus  paid 
wholly  in  cash,  while  in  thirty-four  it  was  paid  into  a 
provident  fund,  and  in  the  other  cases  the  method  of 
payment  was  mixed. 

(b)  Deferred  Participation:  In  eases  of  deferred  par- 
ticipation the  bonus  may  be  deposited  in  a  provident  fund 
for  the  general  benefit  of  the  whole  body  of  employees,  or 
it  may  be  credited  directly  to  the  individual  participant, 
but  paid  to  him  only  when  he  has  attained  a  specified  age, 
has  worked  in  the  establishment  for  a  certain  number  of 
years,  or  for  some  reason  is  in  serious  need  of  the  money. 
Provision  is  usually  made  for  the  payment  of  sums  due 
employees  to  their  heirs.  In  some  cases  of  deferred  pay- 
ment the  workman  forfeits  his  right  to  a  bonus  if  he 
leaves  the  employment  of  the  firm,  though  in  many  in* 


PROFIT   SHARING  337 

stances  special  provision  is  made  for  him  to  receive  all 
sums  due  upon  giving  reasonable  notice  of  withdrawal. 

Under  the  plan  in  force  upon  the  Von  Thiinen  estates 
in  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  the  bonus  is  credited  to  a  sav- 
ings account,  but  interest  at  4  per  cent,  is  paid  in  cash 
each  Christmas.  AA^hen  an  employee  is  sixty  years  old  he 
can  draw  his  capital  and  in  case  he  dies  before  that  time 
his  widow  or  his  children  inherit  the  amount  which  is 
placed  to  his  credit. 

The  Compagnie  d 'Assurances  Generales  of  Paris,  a 
life,  fire  and  marine  insurance  company,  having  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  employees,  is  another  illustration 
of  deferred  participation.  In  this  case  5  per  cent,  of  the 
annual  profits  go  into  the  bonus  fund,  but  the  amount  due 
each  employee  is  capitalized  annually  at  4  per  cent,  com- 
pound interest,  and  no  cash  is  distributed.  When  an 
employee  has  worked  for  the  company  twenty-five  years 
or  is  sixty-five  years  of  age,  he  has  his  choice  of  taking  an 
annuity  or  investing  his  accumulated  profits  in  French 
government  or  railway  securities.  The  company,  how- 
ever, retains  control  of  the  share  certificates  until  his 
death,  when  his  heirs  receive  the  principal.  Thus,  though 
no  cash  whatever  is  distributed,  a  system  of  compulsory 
saving  is  inaugurated  which  is  said  to  secure  permanent 
and  steady  employees. 

Deferred  participation  has  been  quite  successful  in 
certain  cases  and  under  certain  conditions,  but  has  ob- 
vious limitations.  It  is  most  applicable  where  the  em- 
ployees are  of  a  high  degree  of  intelligence,  for  ordinary 
82 


338  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

working  people  are  seldom  able  to  appreciate  the  full  ad- 
vantages of  a  benefit  which  is  postponed  into  the  distant 
future.  The  plan,  however,  has  met  with  success  in 
France  which  it  could  not  have  hoped  to  achieve  in  the 
United  States,  for  throughout  Europe  the  idea  of  thrift 
in  the  provision  for  misfortune  and  old  age  appeals  with 
far  greater  force  than  in  this  country  to  the  average 
working  man.  Moreover,  the  greater  stability  of  condi- 
tions there  has  produced  a  greater  degree  of  confidence  in 
future  benefits.  For  various  reasons,  chief  among  which 
are  changes  in  industrial  conditions,  the  typical  employee 
in  the  United  States  seldom  remains  for  any  great  length 
of  time  in  one  establishment.  In  view  of  the  uncertain- 
ties of  his  own  life  and  of  the  business  life  of  the  com- 
pany, the  offer  of  a  share  in  the  profits  of  an  undertaking, 
to  be  received  only  when  he  has  attained  the  age  of  sixty 
years,  would  not  be  calculated  to  arouse  the  energy  and 
enthusiasm  of  the  American  workman. 

(c)  Stock  Ownership  hy  Employees:  Stock  ownership 
by  employees  may  or  may  not  be  true  profit  sharing,  ac- 
cording to  the  means  by  which  the  stock  is  acquired. 
Cases  in  which  workmen  simply  buy  shares  in  the  business 
in  which  they  are  employed  can  not  be  called  examples  of 
profit  sharing,  for,  though  the  laborer  receives  a  portion 
of  the  profit,  there  is  no  "agreement,"  and  it  is  not  as 
employee  but  as  shareholder  that  he  obtains  his  dividend. 
The  plan  adopted  by  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  and  by 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  under  which  a  com- 
pany agrees  in  advance  to  offer  its  stock  at  special  rates 


PROFIT   SHARING  339 

to  employees,  is  a  nearer  approach  to  profit  sharing,  but 
still  the  share  received  is  purel}^  a  dividend.  It  may, 
however,  have  something  the  same  effect  as  a  profit  shar- 
ing bonus  in  inducing  greater  care  and  diligence  in  the 
working  force. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  cases,  such  as  the  Oldham 
spinning  mills  in  England,  the  small  boot  and  shoe  fac- 
tories which  flourished  in  Massachusetts  in  the  early  '80s 
and  the  cooperative  cooper  shops  of  Minneapolis,  in  which 
workingmen,  either  from  the  start  or  after  gradual  acqui- 
sition, have  held  all  or  nearly  all  the  stock  of  a  business. 
These,  however,  are  usually  mere  joint  stock  companies, 
and  should  be  classed  as  examples  of  cooperative  produc- 
tion rather  than  as  profit  sharing  establishments,  though 
the  term  cooperative  is  itself  more  properly  restricted  to 
those  companies  which  are  democratically  managed  by 
the  employees  themselves,  whether  in  their  capacity  as 
shareholders  or  in  their  capacity  as  cooperative  workers, 
on  the  principle  of  one  man,  one  vote. 

In  some  instances,  however,  shares  of  stock  are  assigned 
to  employees  in  lieu  of  a  cash  or  deferred  bonus,  and  such 
cases  are  examples  of  true  profit  sharing  by  means  of 
stock  ownership.  The  participation  of  the  employee, 
then,  consists,  not  in  the  dividends  earned  by  the  stock, 
but  in  the  original  receipt  of  the  shares.  The  payment, 
however,  is  usually  made  partly  in  cash,  though  often  it 
is  provided  that  no  cash  bonus  shall  be  paid  until  stock 
up  to  a  certain  amount  has  been  acquired.  Thus  the  firm 
of  Billon  et  Isaac  of  Geneva,  Switzerland,  manufacturers 


340  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

of  the  cases  and  parts  of  the  mechanism  of  music  boxes, 
introduced  in  1871  a  system  of  profit  sharing  under  which 
the  bonus  was  paid  one-half  in  cash  and  the  other  half  in 
shares  of  the  company. 

The  Proctor  and  Gamble  Company  of  Ivory  dale,  Ohio, 
now  requires  that  an  employee,  to  receive  a  profit  sharing 
dividend,  shall  own  common  stock  of  the  company  to  an 
amount  equal  in  market  value  to  a  year's  wages  or  salary. 
If  an  employee,  however,  does  not  hold  this  amount  of 
stock,  the  company  offers  to  buy  it  for  him  or  for  her^ 
requiring  a  small  firet  payment  and  annual  payments 
thereafter,  3  per  cent,  interest  being  charged  on  the  bal- 
ance due.  Dividends  are  credited  to  the  employee  until 
the  stock  purchased  in  his  name  has  been  paid  for. 

In  the  experiment  of  the  Messrs.  Briggs  at  the  AVhit- 
w^ood  Collieries  in  Yorkshire,  if  the  employee  did  not  take 
a  share  in  the  stock  of  the  company  his  bonus  was  only 
two-thirds  of  that  received  by  a  workman  who  was  also  a 
shareholder. 

In  1894  the  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Company  of  Lon- 
don offered  to  increase  its  annual  bonus  50  per  cent,  on 
the  condition  that  one-half  of  it  should  be  invested  in 
ordinary  stock.  "Within  twelve  months  85  per  cent,  of 
the  men  had  accepted  the  offer,  and  after  a  short  time  all 
had  entered  as  participants  in  this  addition.  The  invest- 
ments in  stock,  which  amounted  to  £5,000  in  1894,  had 
risen  to  £80,000  in  1899,  and  there  was  also  in  the  latter 
year  £30,000  on  deposit.  Fifty-five  per  cent,  of  the  men 
who  owned  stock,  owned  simply  the  compulsory  amount, 


PROFIT   SHARING  341 

but  forty-five  per  cent,  had  also  made  voluntary  savings. 

(d)  Amount  of  Bonus:  In  determining  the  amount  of 
the  bonus  to  be  distributed,  it  is  customary  to  deduct  from 
the  gross  receipts,  along  with  other  working  expenses, 
interest  on  the  capital  invested,  though  in  some  cases  the 
net  revenue  is  distributed  between  the  employees  and 
shareholders  without  any  deduction  for  interest.  Some- 
times a  fixed  minimum  amount,  called  "the  reserved 
limit, ' '  is  set  aside  for  the  payment  of  interest,  deprecia- 
tion and  the  salaries  of  management,  and  in  such  cases 
the  employees  participate  only  in  profits  which  exceed 
this  reserved  limit.  Usually  the  share  of  the  employees 
is  a  specified  fraction  of  the  net  profits,  but  ' '  in  some  in- 
stances the  employer  offers  to  give  up  to  his  employees  so 
much  of  his  surplus  profits  as  shall  suffice  to  pay  them  a 
bonus  at  the  same  rate  per  cent,  on  their  wages  as  the 
dividend  earned  by  the  capital,  or  a  bonus  at  a  fixed  rate, 
uniform  from  year  to  year."^  The  Proctor  and  Gamble 
Company,  for  instance,  pays  its  profit  sharing  dividend 
at  the  same  time  as  its  dividend  on  common  stock,  and 
any  employee  who  receives  wages  of  $500  a  year  is  en- 
titled to  a  dividend  equal  in  amount  to  that  which  he 
would  receive  if  he  were  the  owner  of  $500  worth,  par 
value,  of  the  stock  of  the  company. 

In  a  few  cases  the  interest  on  capital,  the  wages  and  the 
salaries  of  management  are  counted  as  expenses  of  oper- 
ation, and  profits  are  distributed  in  an  equal  percentage 
to  the  three  factors,  capital,  skill  and  labor.     The  first 

*  Schloss,  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration,  p.  268. 


342  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

reward  of  each  is  determined  by  the  current  rates  of  inter- 
est, salaries  and  wages;  and  the  second  and  variable  re- 
ward is  to  be  divided  in  the  same  proportions  as  the  first 
fixed  reward.  This  is  the  method  originally  followed  by 
the  N.  0.  Nelson  Company  of  St.  Louis. 

The  plan  of  the  South  INIetropolitan  Gas  Company  of 
London  is  quite  different.  For  every  penny  gained  in 
the  reduction  of  the  price  of  gas  below  2s.  8d.  per  thou- 
sand feet,  a  bonus  of  one  per  cent,  and,  in  case  one-half 
the  amount  is  invested  in  stock,  one  and  one-half  per 
cent.,  on  wages  and  salaries  is  paid. 

(e)  Distribution  of  the  Bonus:  The  distribution  of  the 
bonus  is  effected  by  a  considerable  variety  of  methods. 
In  a  large  number  of  cases,  however,  the  amount  of  wages 
earned  during  the  year  is  taken  as  the  basis  of  division, 
each  employee  receiving  the  same  proportion  of  the  dis- 
tributable sum  that  his  wages  bear  to  the  total  amount 
paid  in  wages.  Sometimes  the  employees  are  divided 
into  classes,  based  on  positions  held,  on  different  degrees 
of  appreciation  of  the  benefits  of  profit  sharing,  on  the 
amount  of  wages  received,  or  on  length  of  service,  and 
each  class  shares  at  a  different  rate  or  in  a  different  fund. 
The  Paris  and  Orleans  Railway  Company,  for  instance, 
originally  divided  its  employees  into  three  classes  accord- 
ing to  rank,  the  two  higher  classes  receiving  definite  pro- 
portions of  the  distributable  amount  according  to  salaries, 
and  the  third  class  receiving  the  remainder.  Under  the 
original  plan  of  the  Proctor  and  Gamble  Company  the 
employees  were  divided  into  four  classes,  based  on  the 


PROFIT   SHARING  343 

interest  shown  in  the  work,  but  when  the  desired  result 
was  accomplished  this  plan  was  abandoned. 

(f)  Qualifications  for  Participation:  Participation  in 
profits  is  sometimes  limited  to  a  certain  class.  In  the  Co- 
operative Paper  Works  at  Angouleme,  France,  for  in- 
stance, profit  sharing  began  with  the  overseers  and  was 
gradually  extended,  first  to  the  older  workmen,  and  later 
to  the  entire  body  of  employees.  The  South  Metropolitan 
Gas  Company  of  London,  also,  introduced  profit  sharing 
among  its  ofificers  and  foremen  in  1886,  but  in  1889  ex- 
tended the  system  to  the  workmen. 

Between  1882  and  1890  there  were  five  years  in  which 
the  Pillsbury  Flour  Mills  of  Minneapolis,  Minnesota, 
divided  considerable  sums  among  those  employees  who 
had  been  in  the  service  of  the  company  for  five  years,  or 
who  occupied  positions  of  special  importance,  but  the 
proportion  of  profits  to  be  distributed  was  never  specified 
beforehand,  and  ' '  for  the  last  few  years  the  profits  of  the 
milling  business  have  not  been  such  as  to  warrant  any 
division. ' ' 

Salaried  employees  may  or  may  not  share  in  the  profits. 
Sometimes  only  those  employees  who  signify  an  express 
desire  to  be  included  are  made  participants.  In  the  Ara 
Cushman  Company  of  Auburn,  Maine,  for  instance,  the 
bonus  was  paid  only  to  those  who  entered  into  the  profit 
sharing  plan  by  application.  The  printing,  publishing 
and  bookselling  house  of  M.  Chaix  of  Paris,  which  em- 
ploys some  twelve  hundred  persons,  provides  that  appli- 
cation must  be  made  to  the  head  of  the  house  and  that 


344  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

three  years  are  necessary  to  qualify  the  employee  for  par- 
ticipation. 

Sometimes,  as  in  the  Maison  Leclaire,  all  employees, 
regardless  of  length  of  service,  share  in  the  benefits  of  the 
system,  but  frequently  certain  conditions  must  be  ful- 
filled before  the  workman  becomes  a  participant.  Among 
the  conditions  imposed  are,  for  instance,  (a)  a  certain 
minimum  length  of  service,  and  (b)  non-membership  in  a 
labor  organization.  The  Columbus  Railway  Company, 
for  example,  requires  six  months'  continuous  service  be- 
fore participation  in  the  bonus,  and  provides  that  "should 
an  employee  leave  or  be  dismissed  from  the  service  of  the 
company  during  the  quarter  in  which  dividend  is  com- 
puted, he  forfeits  all  claim,  and  his  account  is  ruled  off 
of  the  books  of  the  company. ' ' 

2.  Profit  Sharing  and  Trade  Unionism:  The  re- 
quirement that  participants  in  profit  sharing  schemes 
shall  not  belong  to  labor  unions  brings  up  the  important 
question  of  the  relation  of  profit  sharing  to  trade  union- 
ism. In  several  cases  the  presentation  of  a  bonus  has 
been  used  as  a  method  of  breaking  the  power  of  a  labor 
organization,  and  it  is  frequently  asserted  that  the  nat- 
ural attitude  of  trade  unionism  is  hostile  to  profit  sharing. 

At  the  Whitwood  Collieries  in  Yorkshire,  to  use  a  fa- 
mous example,  it  was  a  long  series  of  strikes  which  caused 
the  inauguration  of  profit  sharing,  and  the  system  was 
tried  for  the  express  purpose  of  undermining  the  influ- 
ence of  the  trade  union.  The  experiment,  however, 
ended  after  ten  years  in  another  strike,  and  probably  the 


PROFIT   SHARING  345 

most  fundamental  cause  of  its  failure  was  the  attitude  of 
the  employers  towards  the  labor  organizations.  In  the 
United  States  the  firm  of  Ara  Cushman  and  Company  of 
Auburn,  Maine,  met  with  a  similar  experience  in  a  profit 
sharing  scheme  inaugurated  with  the  understanding  and 
agreement  "that  neither  the  company  who  manage  the 
business  nor  the  employees  who  participate  in  profit  shar- 
ing shall  belong  to  any  organization  or  association,  which 
will  in  any  way  control  or  influence  their  relations  to  any 
of  the  afi^airs  of  the  business."^ 

The  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Company  of  London, 
however,  has  had  undeniable  success  with  a  system  of 
profit  sharing  which  was  originally  adopted  after  a  bitter 
and  protracted  strike,  as  a  means  of  insuring  against 
labor  disputes  and  trade  unionism.  Non-membership  in 
a  union  is  made  a  condition  of  participation.  Moreover, 
the  men  are  required  to  sign  an  agreement  to  serve  twelve 
months,  and  in  order  to  prevent  their  leaving  together, 
the  original  agreements  were  variously  dated.  The  work- 
men support  the  system  because  the  company  pays  the 
full  rate  of  trade  union  wages,  and  there  is  nothing  to 
gain  by  refusing  to  accept  the  bonus. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  good  reason  for  the  usual  trade 
union  attitude  of  hostility  towards  profit  sharing,  espe- 
cially towards  the  method  of  deferred  participation. 
''That  a  system,  under  which  a  part  of  the  employee's 
remuneration  remains  in  the  hands  of  his  employers, 


^Second  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Industrial    and    Labor    Statistics, 
Maine,  p.  167. 


346  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

liable  to  forfeiture  if  he  quit  their  service,  must  render 
anj'  attempt  to  improve  existing  conditions  of  employ- 
ment by  combination  difficult  if  not  impossible  will  read- 
ily be  conceded ;  and  with  respect  to  all  forms  of  profit- 
sharing,  the  tendency  of  which  is  to  detach  the  employee 
from  his  allegiance  to,  or  to  prevent  him  from  joining  the 
trade  union  organization,  it  may  well  be  considered  open 
to  question,  whether,  in  the  long  run,  the  advantage 
which  employees  derive  from  the  receipt  of  a  share  in 
profits,  may  not,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  be  counter- 
balanced by  their  being  deprived  of  those  benefits  which 
it  is  claimed  that  trade  union  combination  is  capable  of 
securing.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that,  even  in  cases, 
in  which  the  profit  sharing  scheme  has  not  been  intro- 
duced with  a  view  to  weakening  the  influence  of  the  trade 
union,  and  does  not  contain  any  of  those  special  provi- 
sions which  have  in  some  cases  been  inserted  with  this 
object,  the  inevitable  tendency  of  all  exceptional  methods 
is  to  get  the  men  working  under  them  out  of  line  with 
their  fellows."^ 

Among  American  workmen  there  is  a  healthy  opposi- 
tion to  any  agency  which  weakens  organized  resistance  to 
oppression  or  puts  the  laborer  in  the  power  of  the  em- 
ployer, and  profit  sharing  is  usually  looked  upon  with  a 
great  deal  of  suspicion.  The  trade  union  attitude  was 
well  expressed  by  President  Gompers  in  his  testimony 
before  the  Industrial  Commission  :  * '  There  have  been 
few,  if  any,  of  these  concerns  which  have  been  even  com- 

>Schloss,  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration,  pp.  292-293. 


PROFIT   SHARING  347 

paratively  fair  to  their  employees.  The  average  em- 
ployer who  has  indulged  in  this  single-handed  scheme  to 
solve  the  social  problem  has  gotten  out  of  the  workers  all 
that  there  was  in  them  and  all  their  vitality,  and  made 
them  old  prematurely,  to  the  tune  of  five  or  ten  years  of 
their  lives.  They  made  the  worker  work  harder,  longer 
hours,  and  when  the  employees  of  other  concerns  in  the 
same  line  of  trade  were  enjoying  increased  wages,  shorter 
hours  of  labor,  and  other  improvements,  tending  to  the 
material  progress  of  the  worker,  the  employees  of  the 
concern  where  so-called  profit  sharing  was  the  system  at 
the  end  of  the  year  found  themselves  receiving  lower 
wages  for  harder  work  than  were  those  who  were  not 
under  that  beneficent  system."^ 

3.  Industrial  Partnership:  In  the  most  successful 
profit  sharing  experiments  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to 
progress  towards  true  cooperation,  or  industrial  partner- 
ship. This  growth  may  take  place  in  one  or  more  of 
three  different  ways,  (a)  by  associating  workmen  in  the 
ownership  of  stock,  (b)  by  associating  workmen  in  the 
administration  of  discipline,  and  (c)  by  permitting  work- 
men to  elect  the  business  manager.  Several  instances 
have  already  been  given  in  which  stock  ownership  has 
been  made  the  basis  or  accompaniment  of  participation, 
but  in  the  cases  which  are  now  to  be  described  the  prin- 
ciple of  cooperation,  which  recognizes  the  employees  as 
the  vital  element  of  a  business  association,  pervades  the 
system  of  profit  sharing. 

'^Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  VII,  p.  644. 


348  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

The  four  principal  examples  of  industrial  partnership 
are  the  Maison  Leclaire,  of  Paris;  the  Godin  Famili- 
stere  of  Guise,  France ;  the  Bon  Marche,  of  Paris,  and 
Wm.  Thomson  and  Sons,  of  Huddersfield,  England. 
Three  of  these,  it  will  be  observed,  are  French  establish- 
ments, and  one  is  English.  Moreover,  another  French 
firm,  the  Cooperative  Paper  Works  at  Angouleme,  might 
consistently  be  added  to  the  list. 

(a)  The  Maison  Leclaire:  The  Maison  Leclaire,  a  highly 
prosperous  house  painting  firm,  began  profit  sharing  in 
1842,  and  is  the  oldest  existing  industrial  partnership. 
Originally  simple  cash  dividends,  apportioned  on  the 
basis  of  wages,  were  given,  but  in  1863  a  mutual  aid  so- 
ciety was  admitted  as  a  perpetual  sleeping  partner,  and 
in  1869  the  entire  business  was  incorporated  with  formal 
provisions  for  the  distribution  of  the  profits  among  the 
managing  partners,  the  mutual  aid  society,  and  the  work- 
men forming  the  regular  staff.  Of  the  total  capital, 
half  belongs  to  the  managing  partners  and  the  other 
half  to  the  aid  society.  Five  per  cent,  interest  is  paid 
on  this  capital  and  the  managing  partners  and  the 
aid  society  also  receive  respectively  one-quarter  of  the  re- 
maining net  profits.  The  other  half  of  the  profits  is 
divided  among  all  the  employees  in  proportion  to  wages. 
Every  member  of  the  mutual  aid  society  who  is  fifty 
years  old  and  has  worked  for  the  house  twenty  years  is 
entitled  to  a  retiring  pension. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  this  experiment 
is  its  democratic  management  through  the  noyau,  or  corps 


PROFIT   SHARING  349 

of  the  establishment,  which  consists  of  a  certain  nimiber 
of  employees  of  high  moral  character  and  ability.  This 
noyau  elects  annually  the  foremen  of  departments,  choos- 
ing them  from  a  list  proposed  by  the  managing  partners. 
It  also  elects  a  committee  consisting  of  five  workmen  and 
three  clerks,  with  the  managing  partners  as  ex-officio 
chairmen,  and  this  committee  is  for  most  purposes  the 
governing  body  of  the  house.  It  examines  candidates  for 
admission  to  the  noyau,  and,  in  the  event  of  the  death  or 
retirement  of  one  of  the  partners,  nominates  his  successor, 
who  is  elected  for  life  by  the  noyau.  In  order  that  the 
best  qualified  man,  irrespective  of  pecuniary  circum- 
stances, may  be  chosen,  it  is  provided  that  the  capital  of 
the  outgoing  partner  shall  be  withdrawn  only  by  consent 
or  when  it  has  been  replaced  from  the  sum  accruing  to  his 
successor  through  the  latter 's  share  in  the  profits.  In 
1890  two  partners  were  elected  in  the  place  of  one  who 
had  died,  and  at  the  same  time  the  capital  of  the  house 
was  doubled.  There  are  thus  at  the  present  time  three 
managing  partners. 

(b)  The  Godin  Familistere:  Another  plan  of  demo- 
cratic management  of  an  industrial  partnership  is  that  of 
the  Familistere  at  Guise,  where  participation  was  first 
introduced  in  1877.  The  scheme,  as  originally  outlined 
and  as  finally  carried  out  by  M.  Godin,  involved  the  grad- 
ual transformation  of  the  business,  including  houses  and 
schools  as  well  as  manufacturing  plant,  to  a  cooperative 
basis.  The  plan  is  complicated  and  provides  for  a  regu- 
lar hierarchy  in  the  government  of  the  institution. 


350  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Of  the  net  profits  after  the  payment  of  wages  and  in- 
terest, twenty-five  per  cent,  go  to  the  officials  who  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  society,  and  the  remainder  is  divided 
between  labor  and  capital.  "The  nsual  interest  on  the 
capital  of  the  establishment,  and  the  whole  amount  paid 
out  during  the  year  in  wages  and  salaries,  are  added  to- 
gether. The  proportion  each  sum  bears  to  the  total 
amount  determines  the  shares  of  capital  and  labor.  "^  As 
wages,  however,  amount  to  about  eight  times  the  interest 
on  capital,  the  share  of  the  wage  earners  is  eight  times 
that  of  the  interest  receivers.  Moreover,  as  the  bonus  is 
paid  in  shares  in  the  business,  the  capital  is  itself  owned 
by  present  or  former  employees,  and  provision  is  made 
for  the  retention  of  ownership  within  the  association, 

"The  receipts  of  a  member  from  the  operations  of  the 
society  consist  of:  (1)  His  wages;  (2)  the  amount  of 
profits  apportioned  to  his  wages;  (3)  the  amount  of 
profits  apportioned  to  the  certificates  of  stock  owned  by 
him  ;  (4)  5  per  cent,  interest  on  such  certificates ;  (5)  par- 
ticipation in  the  social  institutions  maintained  by  the 
society,  chiefly  insurance  and  old-age  pensions  and  school- 
ing; (6)  profits  realized  by  the  cooperative  store,  if  pat- 
ronized by  him.  "2  Since  1894  the  receipts  of  the  mem- 
bers have  been  further  augmented  by  the  payment  to 
them  in  cash  of  the  sums  formerly  appropriated  to  pur- 
chase the  shares  owned  by  the  founder. 

(c)   The  Bon  Marche:    The  Bon  Marche,  one  of  the 


^  Gilman,  Profit  Sharinp.  p.  17.5. 

^Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  Department  of  Labor^  No.  6,  p.  587. 


PROFIT   SHARING  351 

largest  retail  distributive  establishments  in  the  world, 
began  profit  sharing  in  1876  with  the  formation  of  a  prov- 
ident society,  to  be  supported  by  sums  annually  paid  out 
of  net  profits.  The  amount  to  be  so  paid,  however,  Avas 
reserved  for  the  decision  of  the  proprietor,  M.  Boucicaut, 
and  is  even  now  determined  by  custom  and  not  by  agree- 
ment. 

In  the  provident  society  a  separate  account  is  opened 
in  the  name  of  every  employee  who  has  worked  contin- 
uously for  five  years  in  the  house,  and  this  account  is 
credited  with  a  share  of  the  profits  set  aside  for  distribu- 
tion, the  share  being  proportionate  to  the  amount  received 
in  wages  during  the  year.  These  accounts  are  also  cred- 
ited with  interest  at  four  per  cent.,  and  thus  an  annuity, 
accumulating  at  compound  interest,  is  created.  A  male 
employee  can  claim  cash  payment  of  the  entire  amount  to 
his  credit  when  he  is  sixty  years  of  age  or  has  completed, 
twenty  years  of  uninterrupted  work  for  the  house,  and  a 
female  employee  at  fifty  years  of  age  or  after  fifteen 
years  of  service.  If  a  member  dies,  full  payment  is  im- 
mediately made  to  his  surviving  relatives.  There  is  also 
a  retiring  fund,  which  draws  annually  five  per  cent,  of  the 
profits  of  the  Civil  Society,  an  organization  of  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  establishment,  but  a  pension  is  available 
only  when  the  employee  has  retired  from  active  service. 

In  1877  the  founder  died,  and  the  business  was  there- 
after conducted  by  his  widow,  who  in  1880  carried  his 
ideas  a  step  farther  by  formally  admitting  into  partner- 
ship with  herself  ninety-six  heads  of  departments,  who 


352  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

put  into  the  business  sums  ranging  from  $10,000  to  $20;- 
000  each.  In  some  instances  these  sums,  though  standing 
in  a  single  name,  were  contributed  by  a  group  of  em- 
ployees, so  that  the  benefits  were  actually  extended  to  an 
even  larger  number  of  persons  than  appeared  in  the 
formal  partnership.  It  Avas  arranged,  too,  that  Madame 
Boucicaut  could  cede  her  capital  in  shares  of  $10,000  to 
the  employees  of  the  house  as  fast  as  they  desired  to  obtain 
them,  that  she  could  name  one  or  three  managers  to  take 
her  place,  and  that  at  her  death  the  establishment  was  to 
become  a  joint  stock  company.  She  died  in  1887  and  the 
institution  passed  without  a  jar  into  the  hands  of  the  joint 
stock  company,  all  of  the  beneficent  institutions  remain- 
ing unchanged. 

(d)  Wm.  Thomson  and  Sons:  In  England  the  only 
business  house  which  employs  methods  comparable  to 
those  of  the  great  French  establishments  described  is  the 
firm  of  Wm.  Thomson  and  Sons,  woolen  and  worsted 
manufacturers  of  Huddersfield.  In  1886  this  business 
was  turned  over  to  a  society,  over  which  Mr.  Thomson  re- 
mains in  control  as  manager,  subject  to  removal  "by  the 
vote  of  five-sixths  of  all  the  members  of  the  association, 
and  five-sixths  of  all  the  votes  capable  of  being  given  at  a 
special  general  meeting. ' '  He  may  appoint  his  successor. 
A  committee  composed  of  Mr.  Thomson,  three  employees 
of  the  society,  two  representatives  of  cooperative  societies, 
and  two  representatives  of  trade  unions,  though  its  func- 
tions are  mainly  consultative,  modifies  the  power  of  the 
manager,  and  tends  to  produce  a  true  cooperative  spirit 


PROFIT   SHARING  353 

The  capital  is  divided  into  loan  capital,  owned  by 
Mr.  Thomson,  and  share  capital,  a  large  part  of  which  is 
held  by  the  employees  of  the  house,  and  by  the  cooperative 
societies  and  trade  unions  concerned  in  the  business.  A 
fixed  interest  of  5  per  cent,  is  allowed  on  the  share  capital, 
and  if  in  any  year  not  paid  in  full,  the  deficit  is  a  first 
charge  on  subsequent  profits.  Assurance  and  pension 
funds  for  the  benefit  of  the  employees  are  also  provided 
for,  after  which  the  remainder  of  the  profits  "go  one-half 
to  the  customers  of  the  society  and  the  other  half  to  all 
persons  employed  by  the  society  for  not  less  than  six 
months,  as  a  bonus  in  proportion  to  wages  earned,  this 
bonus  being  applied  in  or  towards  purchase  of  shares  in 
I  he  society." 

4.  History  and  Present  Status  of  Profit  Sharing: 
Though  the  principle  of  profit  sharing  was  recognized  by 
Turgot  in  1775,  the  first  experiments  in  the  system  were 
made  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  earliest  known  was  that  of  Lord  Wallscourt,  begun  on 
his  Irish  estate  about  1829  and  said  to  have  been  in  suc- 
cessful operation  as  late  as  1845. 

(a)  In  France:  Complete  success,  however,  was  first, 
attained  in  France  by  M.  Leclaire,  who  began  his  system 
of  participation  in  1842.  To  him  "undoubtedly  belongs 
the  honor  of  having  done  more  than  any  other  one  man 
to  work  out  the  details  and  demonstrate  the  practical 
merits  of  industrial  partnership." 

The  next  year,  1843,  saw  the  inauguration  of  profit 
sharing  in  the  paper  factory  of  Laroche-Joubert,  Lacroix 
23 


354  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

et  Cie.,  now  the  Cooperative  Paper  Works  at  Angouleme. 
where  it  has  developed  by  gradual  stages,  as  in  the  INIaison 
Leclaire,  into  true  industrial  partnership.  In  1902  more 
than  one-third  of  the  capital  was  held  by  employees. 
This  is  interesting  as  an  example  of  the  successful  appli- 
cation of  the  sj'stem  to  an  industry  in  which  a  large 
capital  is  required  and  the  cost  of  labor  is  comparatively 
small,  while  the  Maison  Leclaire  is  an  example  of  its 
successful  application  to  an  industry  in  which  the  capital 
is  small  and  the  cost  of  labor  large. 

In  1844  the  Paris  and  Orleans  Railway  Company  began 
sharing  profits  with  its  employees,  and  for  the  next  quar- 
ter of  a  century  this  was  one  of  themost  striking  examples 
of  the  system.  Several  plans  of  participation  were  tried, 
but  no  more  than  one-half  of  the  bonus  was  ever  paid  in 
cash.  Finally  an  arrangement  was  adopted  under  which 
the  share  of  each  employee,  up  to  ten  per  cent,  of  his 
year's  wages,  was  to  be  paid  in  favor  of  his  account  in 
the  State  Pension  Office;  and  by  1876,  this  plan  led  to 
the  final  disappearance  of  the  cash  dividend.  Since  that 
time  profit  sharing  has  amounted  to  nothing  more  than  a 
pension.  It  has  not,  however,  been  formally  abandoned, 
and  might  at  any  time  be  renewed. 

In  France  sixteen  of  the  firms  which  now  practice  par- 
ticipation adopted  the  system  before  1865,  the  date  of 
the  practical  beginning  of  the  movement  in  England. 
There  has  been,  in  general,  a  gradual  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  establishments,  and  by  1893,  one  hundred  and 
seven  French  firms  had  adopted  some  form  of  profit  shar- 


PROFIT   SHARING  355 

ing.  In  1902,  however,  there  were  only  ninety-three 
establishments  which  were  positively  known  to  practice 
the  system,  though  thirty-one  establishments  failed  to 
reply  to  inquiries.  Moreover,  ninety-nine  producers' 
cooperative  societies  in  France  in  1900  practiced  profit 
sharing.  The  movement  in  France  is  very  greatly 
assisted  by  the  Societe  pour  VEtude  Pratique  de  la  Par- 
ticipation du  Personnel  dans  les  Bhiefices,  founded  in 
1879,  which  has  issued  regular  quarterly  bulletins  and 
other  publications,  and  has  conducted  national  and  inter- 
national congresses.  The  membership  is  composed 
exclusively  of  employers  or  workers  in  profit  sharing 
establishments,  and  numbers  about  one  hundred  and 
forty. 

(b)  l7i  England:  Historically  one  of  the  most  famous 
experiments  in  profit  sharing  was  that  of  the  Messrs. 
Briggs  at  the  Whitwood  Collieries  in  Yorkshire,  which 
extended  from  1865  to  1875,  and  has  been  already  men- 
tioned. This  was  extensively  advertised  and  obtained 
almost  a  world-wide  reputation.  As  long  as  it  continued 
it  ''furnished  the  standard  example  of  just  relations  of 
master  and  man,  to  which  every  writer  on  labor  felt  bound 
to  devote  attention,"  Its  failure  gave  profit  sharing  a 
backset  in  England  from  which  it  took  many  years  to 
recover. 

The  adoption,  however,  in  1889,  of  a  system  of  general 
participation,  by  the  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Company 
of  London  was  a  distinct  event  in  the  history  of  the  sys- 
tem, for  this  company  employs  about  ten  thousand  men 


356  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

and  is  probably  the  most  extensive  gas  producer  in  the 
world.  The  plan  has  been  highly  successful,  and  in  1898 
two  workmen  were  chosen  as  directors  of  the  company, 
while  at  present  the  employees  have  three  representatives 
upon  the  board  of  directors. 

Although  the  failure  of  the  Briggs  experiment  retarded 
the  movement  considerably,  England  has  had,  neverthe- 
less, a  greater  number  of  experiments  in  profit  sharing 
than  any  other  country.  The  table  on  the  next  page 
^hows,  from  1829  to  1903,  the  number  of  British  firms 
adopting  profit  sharing,  classified  according  to  present 
existence  and  discontinuance,  and  the  number  of  firms 
actually  practicing  the  system  at  the  end  of  each  year. 

According  to  this  table  profit  sharing  has  been  started 
in  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight  establishments,  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-eight  of  them  since  1888.  While  of  these 
one  hundred  and  ninety-eight  cases  only  eighty-five  are 
known  to  have  abandoned  the  plan,  it  is  interesting  to 
note  the  rapid  and  significant  decline  of  the  movement 
since  1896,  especially  as  compared  with  the  previous 
decade. 

Within  the  cooperative  movement  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  the  principles  of  profit  sharing  have  made  some 
progress,  though  not  as  much  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. In  1902,  out  of  1,116  cooperative  productive  so- 
cieties of  all  classes  reporting,  173  shared  profits  with 
employees,  the  average  percentage  on  wages  being  4.8. 
This  included  the  production  of  the  retail  and  wholesale 
distributive  societies. 


PROFIT   SHARING 


357 


British  Firms  Adopting  Profit  Sharing:  Durine  Year 

Number  of 
Profit  Shar- 
ing Firms 
at  End  of 

Year 

Discon- 
tinued 

Existing 
1903 

Total 

before  1903 

Year' 

1829 

1 

0 

1 

1 

1865 

4 

3 

6 

6 

1866 

5 

1 

6 

12 

1867 

8 

0 

3 

14 

1868 

1 

0 

1 

13 

1869 

0 

1 

1 

12 

1870 

1 

0 

1 

12 

1871 

3 

0 

2 

14 

1873 

4 

0 

4 

13 

1873 

1 

1 

2 

15 

1874 

1 

0 

1 

12 

1875 

0 

0 

0 

11 

1876 

1 

3 

3 

14 

1877 

0 

0 

0 

13 

1878 

0 

3 

2 

14 

1879 

0 

0 

0 

13 

1880 ,  . 

1 

1 

2 

15 

1881 

1 

2 

3 

18 

1883 

1 

1 

2 

80 

1883 

2 

1 

3 

33 

1884 

1 

3 

3 

35 

1885   ....... 

3 

1 

3 

28 

1886   ,  

3 

3 

6 

34 

1887 

4 

3 

7 

39 

1888 

3 

6 

8 

46 

1889 

10 

10 

20 

65 

1890 

19 

14 

33 

96 

1891 

13 

4 

17 

103 

1893 

9 

8 

17 

114 

1893 

5 

0 

5 

112 

1894 

3 

3 

5 

108 

1895 . 

7 

3 

9 

111 

1896 

3 

3 

5 

112 

1897 

1 

3 

3 

106 

1898 

1 

3 

3 

102 

1899 

1 

1 

2 

95 

1900 

3 

3 

4 

91 

1901    ....... 

0 

3 

3 

91 

1902    ....... 

0 

1 

1 

88 

1903  (six  months) 

0 

1 

1 

85 

Total  ...... 

113 

85 

198 

.... 

'  In  this  table  experiments  have  been  considered  as  still  existing  un- 
less their  abandonment  has  been  definitely  reported.  In  1903  reports 
were  received  from  only  sixty-nine  establishments  which  were  practic- 
ing profit  sharing.  Statistics  compiled  from  the  Report  of  the  ''Bririehi 
Board  of  Trade  on  Profit  Sharing,  1894;  and  from  the  Labor  Oazette. 


358  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

(c)  In  Other  European  Countries:  In  the  other  coun- 
tries of  Europe  there  are  comparatively  few  cases  of  par- 
ticipation, though  about  1899  Switzerland  presented 
'  *  fourteen  instances ;  Germany,  forty-seven ;  Austria- 
Hungary,  five;  Belgium,  six;  Holland,  seven;  Italy, 
eight ;  and  there  [were]  scattering  examples  in  Spain  and 
Portugal,  Scandinavia  and  Russia— nine  in  all."^ 

In  1878  Dr.  Boehmert  counted  one  hundred  and  twenty 
known  cases  of  profit  sharing  in  all  countries,  and  in  1891 
there  were  estimated  to  be  about  three  hundred.  As  has 
been  seen,  however,  the  movement  in  England,  at  least,  has 
fallen  off  somewhat  since  that  date.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
estimated  in  1900  by  Mr.  Leopold  Katscher  that  there  had 
been  in  the  entire  world  some  five  hundred  experiments  in 
profit  sharing,  about  four  hundred  of  which  were  still  in 
existence.  From  the  fact,  however,  that  he  assigns  fifty 
existing  cases  to  the  United  States,  it  seems  probable  that 
the  total  number  of  experiments  is  somewhat  exaggerated. 
Three  hundred  would  be  a  more  conservative  estimate,  if 
cooperative  societies  practicing  profit  sharing  are  ex- 
cluded. 

5.  Profit  Sharing  in  the  United  States:  In  the  United 
States  profit  sharing  was  slower  in  development,  and  the 
movement  has  never  assumed  anything  like  the  propor- 
tions attained  in  France  and  England.  One  of  the  pio- 
neer experiments  was  that  of  Brewster  and  Company, 
carriage  builders  of  New  York,  which  began  in  1870  and 
was  ended  in  June,  1872,  by  the  workmen  joining  in  the 

'GUman,  Dividend  to  Labor,  p.  338. 


PROFIT   SHARING  359 

eight  hour  strike.  Another  more  successful  trial  of  the 
system  was  begun  in  1869,  by  the  A.  S.  Cameron  Com- 
pany of  Jersey  City,  and  lasted  until  Mr.  Cameron's 
death  in  1877.  Other  isolated  experiments  followed,  and 
in  1892  the  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Profit  Shar- 
ing was  formed,  but  recently  the  enthusiasm  seems  to 
have  waned. 

No  complete  list  of  past  and  present  cases  of  profit 
sharing  in  the  United  States  has  yet  been  made,  though 
Mr.  Paul  Monroe  counted  in  1896  fifty  such  experiments, 
thirty-three  of  which  had  been  permanently  and  five  in- 
definitely abandoned,  leaving  only  twelve  profit  sharing 
plans  in  operation  at  that  date.^  The  large  number  of 
failures,  however,  seems  to  be  due  to  the  brevity  of  the 
trials  as  compared  with  European  experiments,  the  ma- 
jority of  firms  reporting  the  abandonment  of  the  system 
having  tried  it  for  only  two  or  three  years.^ 

At  the  present  time,  profit  sharing  schemes  of  one  form 
or  another  are  known  to  be  in  force  in  fourteen  establish- 
ments, some  of  which  have  practiced  it  for  a  considerable 
number  of  years.  These  are  the  Peace  Dale  Manufac- 
turing Company,  the  Columbus  Railway  and  Light  Com- 
pany, the  Roycroft  Press,  the  Solvay  Process  Company, 
the  Acme  Sucker  Rod  Company,  the  Proctor  and  Gamble 
Company,  the  Bourne  Mills,  the  Ballard  and  Ballard 
Company,  the  Cabot  Manufacturing  Company,  the  Baker 
Manufacturing  Company,  the  N.  0.  Nelson  Company,  the 

1  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  \o'..  I.  p.  709. 

*  For  recent  cases  of  the  abandonment  of  the  system,  reported  by  Mr. 
Monroe  or  Mr.  Gilman  as  practicing  it  in  1896  or  1899,  see  Appendix  B, 


360  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

American  Smelting  and  Refining  Company,  the  Filene 
Department  Store,  and  the  Carolina  Savings  Bank.  In 
the  last  two  of  these  cases,  however,  the  Filene  Depart- 
ment Store  of  Boston  and  the  Carolina  Savings  Bank  of 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  profits  are  shared  with  sal- 
aried employees  and  not  with  wage  earners,  while  the 
American  Smelting  and  Refining  Company  of  New  York 
City,  Denver  and  Pueblo,  Colorado,  includes  no  em- 
ployees below  the  grade  of  foremen.^  There  are  thus  only 
eleven  cases  of  true  Avorkingmen's  profit  sharing  known 
to  be  in  existence,  in  1904,  in  the  United  States. 

(1).  The  Peace  Dale  Manufacturing  Company:  The 
only  early  experiment  w^hich  has  survived  is  that  of  the 
Peace  Dale  Manufacturing  Company,  which  began  a 
system  of  profit  sharing  in  1878  at  Peace  Dale,  Rhode 
Island.  The  dividend  paid  is  not,  however,  a  definite 
proportion  of  the  profits,  but  is  determined  soleh^  by  the 
judgment  of  the  directors  of  the  company  and  is  paid 
only  when  the  profits  seem  to  w^arrant.  Though  no  divi- 
dend was  declared  the  first  year,  5  per  cent,  on  wages  was 
paid  for  two  years  and  3  per  cent,  for  another  two  years. 
Then  the  decline  of  the  business,  due  in  large  measure  to 
general  industrial  conditions,  caused  the  suspension  of 
the  bonus.  A  dividend  of  2  per  cent.,  however,  was  paid 
in  1900  and  one  of  3  per  cent,  in  1902.  There  are,  in 
1904,  about  700  employees.  The  company  states:  "We 
can  not  say  that  the  scheme  has  had  any  noticeable  effect 


'  For  dpsorlptlons  of  the  plana  followed  by  these  three  companies  see 
Appendix  B. 


PROFIT   SHARING  361 

as  yet  upon  the  help,  their  efficiency  or  interest.  .  The 
woolen  business  has  been  so  uncertain  that  it  has  not  en- 
abled us  to  make  the  steady  payment  to  the  help  that 
would  alone  give  them  a  real  interest  in  the  work." 

(2).  The  Columhus  Railway  and  Light  Company: 
The  Columbus  Railway  and  Light  Company  distributes 
an  employee's  dividend,  which  is  paid  quarterly  at  the 
same  time  dividends  are  paid  to  stockholders,  and  in  the 
same  ratio.  That  is,  if  an  employee  earns  $150  during 
the  quarter,  he  receives  5  per  cent,  of  that  amount,  or 
$7.50,  which  is  the  rate  the  company  is  paying  on  both 
stock  and  wages  at  the  present  time. 

(3).  The  Boy  croft  Press:  The  Roy  croft  Press,  incor- 
porated in  1902,  sells  stock  only  to  its  employees,  super- 
intendents and  officers,  in  shares  of  $25  each,  and  guar- 
antees a  dividend  of  12  per  cent,  annually.  ' '  Sometimes 
during  good  years,  funds  have  been  distributed  to  em- 
ployees whether  they  have  anything  invested  or  not." 
In  1903  about  one-half  of  the  stock  of  the  company  was 
held  by  employees,  the  other  half  being  held  by  superin- 
tendents and  officers.  An  employee  may  subscribe  for  as 
many  shares  as  he  desires,  but  if  he  leaves  the  service  of 
the  company  he  must  sell  his  stock  to  Mr.  Hubbard  at  the 
price  paid.  This  is  a  somewhat  indirect  method  of  profit 
sharing,  and  the  experiment  might  be  more  accurately 
defined  as  a  case  of  producers'  cooperation,  of  the  joint- 
stock  variety. 

(4).  The  Solvay  Process  Company:  The  Solvay  Pro- 
cess Company,  near  Syracuse,  New  York,  has  a  successful 


362  LABOR   PROBLEMS 

plan*  of  profit  sharing  which  has  been  in  operation  since 
1887.  Though  "at  first  only  the  chief  employees  and 
general  officers  of  the  company  were  admitted  to  partici- 
pation," foremen  and  assistant  foremen  have  been  al- 
lowed, since  1890,  to  share  in  a  smaller  proportion  of  the 
profits.  Moreover,  "since  the  latter  year  the  plan  has 
been  somewhat  extended  annually  among  older  employees 
of  the  classes  named."  The  share  of  each  participant 
depends  upon  the  amount  of  salary  he  receives  and  the 
rate  of  dividends  to  stockholders.  "The  company  re- 
ports that  it  has  reason  to  believe  the  system  is  an  excel- 
lent one  and  attains  the  desired  end,  for  it  has  incited 
greater  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  establishment,  includ- 
ing suggestions  for  improvements,  little  economies,  and 
the  exercise  of  more  care  in  consuming  supplies  and  ma- 
terials." 

(5).  The  Acme  Sucker  Rod  Company:  The  Acme 
Sucker  Rod  Company  of  Toledo,  Ohio,  for  five  or  six  years 
previous  to  1901,  distributed  annually  a  cash  dividend 
equal  to  5  per  cent,  of  the  year's  wages  of  each  workman. 
In  1901,  however,  a  new  plan  was  adopted,  under  which 
5  per  cent,  of  the  total  sum  of  wages  paid  is  divided  by 
the  number  of  emploj^ees,  and  each  man  is  given  a  certifi- 
cate of  credit  for  the  amount,  as  a  partial  payment  on  a 
$100  share  of  stock  in  the  company.  It  is  provided,  how- 
ever, that  if  an  employee  does  not  desire  the  stock,  he 
may  "exchange  the  certificate  for  cash  on  application  at 
the  office."  Those  who  retain  the  certificates  of  credit 
* '  will  have  the  earnings  of  the  stock  placed  to  their  credit, 


PROFIT  SHARING  363 

as  well  as  any  other  payments  that  they  desire  to  make 
upon  the  stock."  These  certificates  are  not  negotiable, 
but  when  the  share  is  fully  paid  for  at  its  par  value  it 
' '  becomes  the  property  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  issued, 
to  do  with  as  he  likes."  The  Acme  Sucker  Rod  Com- 
pany and  the  Solvay  Process  Company  both  contribute  to 
the  support  of  insurance  funds  for  the  benefit  of  their 
employees,  but  such  contribution  is  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  contributed  by  the  employees  themselves  and 
bears  no  relation  to  the  volume  of  profits.  It  should  be 
remarked,  also,  that  the  dividend  paid  by  the  Acme 
Sucker  Rod  Company  is  itself  not  directly  based  upon 
profits.  Such  payments,  however,  constituting  a  definite 
fraction  of  the  annual  wages  paid,  are  frequently,  if  not 
usually,  classed  as  profit  sharing. 

(6).  The  Proctor  and  Gamble  Company:  The  Proctor 
and  Gamble  Company,  soap  and  candle  makers  of  Ivory- 
dale,  Ohio,  introduced  profit  sharing  in  1887  as  a  direct 
attempt  to  secure  greater  permanence  in  the  working 
force  and  to  avoid  labor  difficulties.  The  original  plan 
provided  that  a  reasonable  salary  should  be  allowed  to 
each  active  member  of  the  firm,  as  a  portion  of  the  ex- 
pense of  manufacturing,  and  that  the  remainder  of  the 
net  profits  should  be  divided  "between  the  firm  and  the 
employees  in  the  proportion  that  the  labor  cost  of  pro- 
duction bore  to  the  total  cost  of  production."  This  plan 
remained  practically  unchanged  until  July  1,  1903,  when 
the  previously  mentioned  modification  requiring  stock 
ownership  for  participation  was  introduced.     The  ma^ 


364  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

jority  of  the  employees,  however,  have  taken  advantage 
of  the  new  offer,  and  will  in  future  receive  the  regular 
dividend  paid  to  owners  of  common  stock  as  well  as  the 
profit  sharing  dividend,  both  of  which  have  been  of  late 
years  12  per  cent.  The  Proctor  and  Gamble  Company 
employs  some  six  hundred  persons  at  Ivorydale,  nearly  all 
of  them  of  a  comparatively  unskilled  class.  The  gains 
are  principally  a  saving  of  time,  a  lessening  of  waste  ma- 
terial, the  better  quality  of  work,  permanence  of  the 
working  force,  decreased  need  of  oversight,  and  industrial 
peace.  It  is  claimed  that  there  has  been  21  per  cent, 
cheaper  labor  cost  in  manufacturing  under  profit  sharing 
than  under  the  simple  wage  system. 

(7).  The  Bourne  Mills:  In  the  Bourne  Cotton  Mills, 
of  Fall  River,  Massachusetts,  profit  sharing  has  been  in 
successful  operation  for  nearly  fifteen  years,  under  con- 
ditions which  are  usually  considered  very  unfavorable. 
The  wages  in  this  industry  are  comparatively  low,  the 
first  cost  of  the  plant  is  large,  machinery  plays  an  impor- 
tant part  in  production,  and  the  average  grade  of  intelli- 
gence among  the  working  people  is  low,  many  of  them 
being  ignorant  French  Canadians.  Under  the  plan 
adopted  in  1889,  and  considered  and  re-adopted  by  the 
Board  of  Directors  every  six  months  since  that  date,  the 
sum  distributed  is  between  6  and  10  per  cent,  of  the 
amount  paid  to  the  stockholders,  and  is  divided  among 
the  employees  upon  the  basis  of  wages  earned.  The  divi- 
dend on  wages  has  ranged  from  2  per  cent,  to  7  per  cent., 
md  a  special  dividend  of  40  per  cent,  of  the  original 


PROFIT   SHARING  365 

amount  is  now  paid  to  all  persons  who  have  been  in  the 
service  of  the  company  continuously  for  over  fifteen 
years.  The  last  dividend  was  21/^  per  cent.,  paid  on  De- 
cember 12,  1903.  There  are  four  hundred  or  more  em- 
ployees, and  all  who  have  worked  faithfully  for  six 
months  are  entitled  to  share  in  profits.  All  those,  how- 
ever, whose  names  are  entered  on  the  profit  sharing  rolls 
are  required  to  sign  a  contract  pledging  them  to  faithful 
service  and  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  company  both 
in  and  out  of  the  mill.  One  reason  for  the  success  of  the 
plan  is  that  great  pains  have  been  taken  to  impress  upon 
every  employee  the  duty  of  contributing  his  share  towards 
the  best  possible  operation  of  the  mills.  It  is  made  clear 
to  all  that  the  company  does  not  intend  to  make  a  free 
gift  of  money  for  nothing,  but  expects  each  employee  to 
assist  in  the  formation  of  profit. 

(8).  Tlie  Ballard  and  Ballard  Company :  The  Ballard 
and  Ballard  Company  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  began 
profit  sharing  in  1886  by  agreeing  to  give  its  miller,  in 
addition  to  a  stipulated  salary,  5  per  cent,  of  the  net 
profits  of  the  business.  The  system  was  extended,  some 
years  later,  by  dividing  10  per  cent,  of  the  net  profits 
among  the  salaried  employees,  and  shortly  afterwards  all 
the  laboring  men  who  had  been  with  the  company  for  two 
years  were  included.  At  present  the  company,  after  the 
payment  of  interest  at  8  per  cent,  on  the  capital  invested, 
takes  out  seven  of  its  emploj'^ees,  to  each  of  whom  is  given 
5  per  cent,  of  the  profits,  after  which  10  per  cent,  of  the 
profits  are  divided  among  the  remaining  salaried  em- 


366  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ployees  and  the  laborers  who  have  been  in  the  employ  of 
the  company  for  two  years  or  more,  making  45  per  cent, 
which  is  distributed.  The  method  used  in  determining 
the  amount  of  the  bonus  is  to  divide  the  total  net  earnings 
by  145  per  cent. 

(9).  The  Cabot  Manufacturing  Company:  The  ex- 
periment of  Mr.  Samuel  Cabot,  manufacturing  chemist 
of  Boston,  was  begun  in  1887,  and  has  continued  in  suc- 
cessful operation  for  seventeen  years.  In  this  establish- 
ment every  employee  who  wishes  to  become  a  participant 
is  required  to  sign  a  promise  to  give  a  sixty  days'  notice 
before  leaving,  and  also  ''to  do  his  w^ork  as  quickly  and 
carefully  as  possible,  remembering  that  the  greater  the 
yield  the  larger  the  profits."  In  consideration  of  this 
promise,  a  certain  fixed  proportion,  known  only  to  the 
employer,  of  the  net  profits,  is  divided  among  the  profit 
sharers,  according  to  their  wages.  One-half  of  the  bonus 
is  paid  in  cash,  and  one-half  is  placed  in  a  savings  bank 
by  the  employer  as  trustee.  If  the  employee  dies  his  heirs 
are  at  once  entitled  to  the  accumulated  fund  in  the  sav- 
ings bank  with  interest,  and  if  he  leaves  the  works,  after 
giving  the  required  sixty  days'  notice,  the  fund  remains 
at  interest  for  two  years,  and  is  then  paid  to  the  operative, 
provided  that  in  the  meantime  he  has  not  sold  any  secrets 
or  formulas  learned  in  the  course  of  his  employment  in 
the  Cabot  works.  In  any  case  this  fund  never  returns  to 
the  employer,  but,  if  forfeited  by  reason  of  discharge  or 
of  leaving  without  the  required  sixty  days'  notice,  is 
"distributed  among  the  other  participants  at  the  noMl 


PROFIT   SHARING  367 

division."  The  employer  has  the  right  to  lend  a  work- 
man money  on  his  fund  for  the  purpose  of  building  a 
home.  The  profits  distributed  among  the  thirty-five  to 
forty  sharers  have  averaged  a  little  over  14  per  cent,  of 
the  total  wages  earned,  and  the  dividend  for  1903  was 
21.3  per  cent,  on  wages.  During  the  seventeen  years  the 
total  amount  distributed  has  been  $40,464.  Mr.  Cabot 
stated  in  May,  1904,  before  the  American  Social  Science 
Association :  "If  we  can  draw  any  inference  it  is  that,  as 
my  profit  compared  to  the  wages  paid  has  increased,  the 
efficiency  of  my  workmen  has  improved.  But  above  all, 
my  observation  has  convinced  me  that  the  spirit  of  my 
employees  is  superior  to  that  of  the  average  and  that  they 
are  more  contented  and  willing  by  far  than  in  similar 
establishments.  In  fact,  I  am  satisfied  that  this  bargain 
has  been  a  good  one  for  both  parties  to  it,  and  that  the 
extra  money  laid  out  has  been  well  and  profitably  in- 
vested." 

( 10 ) .  The  Baker  Manufacturing  Company :  The  Baker 
Manufacturing  Company  of  Evansville,  Wisconsin, 
which  manufactures  pumps  and  windmills,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  examples  of  profit  sharing  in  the  United 
States.  The  plan,  adopted  in  1899,  provides  that  the 
profits  of  the  business  "shall  be  divided  between  the  pre- 
ferred stock  and  labor  in  proportion  to  the  earning  capac- 
ity of  each."  The  earnings  of  preferred  stock  are  arbi- 
trarily defined  to  consist  of  an  annual  dividend  of  5  per 
cent.,  while  the  earnings  of  ordinary  labor  are  considered 
to  be  the  product  of  the  total  number  of  hours  employed 


368  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

during  the  j-ear  by  the  price  of  such  labor  per  hour,  and 
the  earnings  of  salaried  labor  are  the  total  amount  re- 
ceived in  the  year.  After  provision  is  made  for  a  sinking 
fund  and  for  a  dividend  not  to  exceed  5  per  cent  on  com- 
mon stock,  and  on  amounts  credited  toward  the  purchase 
of  common  stock,  the  remainder  of  the  net  profit  is  "di- 
vided between  all  the  persons  regularly  employed  in  the 
manufacturing  business  and  the  preferred  stock  in  pro- 
portion to  the  recognized  earnings  of  each.  Fifteen  per 
cent,  of  this  division  shall  be  paid  in  cash  and  eighty-five 
per  cent,  in  the  common  stock  of  the  company. ' '  No  per- 
son is  entitled  to  share  in  this  division  of  profits  "who 
shall  have  been  in  the  regular  employ  of  the  company  for 
less  than  two  consecutive  years,  who  shall  quit  the  service 
of  the  company  or  who  shall  be  discharged. ' '  Thus  every 
man  who  has  been  in  the  employ  of  the  company  for  over 
two  years  owns  common  stock  and  has  also  received  some 
cash  as  bonus.  "Every  share  of  common  stock  carries 
with  it  a  vote  in  the  management  of  the  business." 
Under  this  system  of  profit  sharing  the  earnings  of  cap- 
ital and  labor  were  increased ;  in  1899,  60.3  per  cent. ;  in 
1900,  82.7  per  cent. ;  in  1901,  73.8  per  cent. ;  in  1902,  98.45 
per  cent. ;  and  in  1903,  69.17  per  cent. 

(11).  The  N.  0.  Nelson  Company:  One  of  tho  most 
noted  examples  of  profit  sharing  in  the  United  States  is 
the  N.  0.  Nelson  Manufacturing  Company  of  St.  Louis, 
Missouri,  and  Leclaire,  Illinois.  This  company  manufac- 
tures plumbing  goods,  and  began  profit  sharing  in  1886 
as  an  immediate  result  of  the  great  railroad  strike  in  the 


PROFIT   SHARING  369 

early  part  of  that  year,  during  which  the  Nelson  business, 
along  with  the  rest,  was  paralyzed. 

Under  the  original  plan,  after  the  deduction  of  interest 
at  6  per  cent.,  10  per  cent,  of  the  net  profits  were  set  aside 
for  a  reserve  fund,  10  per  cent,  for  a  provident  fund,  and 
5  per  cent,  for  an  educational  fund.  The  remainder  was 
divided  equally  between  the  firm  and  the  men.  At  pres- 
ent 10  per  cent,  of  the  net  profits  are  set  aside  for  the  re- 
serve, but  the  other  funds  are  assigned,  from  the  gross 
profits,  whatever  is  necessary  for  their  maintenance.  In 
1892  the  basis  of  division  was  changed  so  that  wages 
should  shai"e  at  twice  the  rate  of  capital.  The  division 
among  the  employees  is  made  on  the  basis  of  salaries  and 
wages.  An  auditor  is  elected  by  the  men  to  examine  the 
books,  and  report  at  the  distribution  meetings. 

During  the  first  three  years  the  dividends  were  paid  in 
cash  with  the  privilege  of  investing  them  in  stock  of  the 
company,  but  when  this  plan  had  been  followed  long 
enough  to  convince  the  employees  that  the  benefit  was 
substantial,  the  bonus  was  made  payable  in  stock,  subject 
to  redemption  at  par  in  case  the  employee  leaves  the  serv- 
ice of  the  company.  It  was  recognized  that  ' '  an  increase 
of  an  average  of  eight  per  cent,  in  wages  would  mean  in 
most  cases  a  rise  in  the  scale  of  living,  which  would  have 
to  be  forcibly  reduced  when  there  should  be  no  dividends, 
or  when  the  employee  should  be  thrown  out  and  do  work 
elsewhere.  The  main  value  of  the  money  would  lie  in 
laying  up  something  for  the  future. '  '^ 

^Report  of  the  Industrial  Cotnmission,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  359, 
24 


370  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

At  present  a  considerable  portion  of  the  five  hundred 
employees  are  shareholders  and  draw  a  dividend  upon 
their  shares  as  well  as  upon  their  wages.  Many  of  the 
workmen  also  own  their  homes  in  the  famous  model  vil- 
lage of  Leclaire,  where  every  effort  has  been  made  to 
produce  comfortable  and  attractive  surroundings  with- 
out in  any  way  diminishing  the  laborer's  independence 
and  self-respect. 

Nearly  all  the  employees  are  members  of  labor  organ- 
izations, which  they  have  joined  upon  the  advice  of  their 
employer.  The  union  scale  of  wages  is  adhered  to,  and 
the  hours  are  nine  per  day,  except  on  Saturday,  M'hen 
work  stops  at  three  in  the  afternoon. 

In  1893  a  severe  test  was  successfully  passed  through, 
proving  the  ability  of  the  system  to  weather  the  storm  of 
industrial  depression.  In  that  year  wages  in  the  Nelson 
establishment  were  cut,  by  the  consent  of  the  workmen,  to 
three-fourths  their  usual  amount,  with  the  understanding 
that  the  other  fourth  should  be  paid  when  the  money 
stringency  was  past.  Salaries  and  interest  were  reduced 
in  the  same  proportion.  At  the  end  of  three  months, 
however,  full  wages  were  restored,  and  at  the  end  of  a 
year  the  earnings  met  the  one-fourth  deficiency  in  wages, 
and  also  the  interest  on  capital.  Profit  sharing  dividends, 
however,  though  not  abandoned,  have  been  suspended 
during  the  past  few  years,  and  the  money  has  been  applied 
to  the  improvement  of  the  village  of  Leclaire  and  to 
various  plans  and  institutions  for  industrial  betterment. 

Though  profit  sharing  has  been  a  success,  Mr.  Nelson 


PROFIT   SHARING  371 

says:  "It  appears  to  be  ciuite  impossible  for  anyone  to 
decide  whether  each  employee  does  a  little  better  or  a  little 
worse;  and  I  would  add  that  I  should  never  advise  any 
employer  to  adopt  the  profit  sharing  system  with  a  view 
to  making  a  larger  additional  profit  than  will  be  paid  out 
in  dividends.  No  one  should  adopt  the  system  except 
upon  the  ground  that  it  is  right  to  recognize  the  workers' 
interest  in  the  joint  outcome  of  the  work  that  is  done.  *  *  * 
That  such  a  joint  interest  will,  in  the  long  run,  affect  the 
quality  of  work  seems  to  me  an  unavoidable  conclusion, 
and  upon  this  general  reason  the  economic  value  of  the 
system  must  rest.  "^ 

6.  Profit  Sharing  and  the  Labor  Problem:  Profit 
sharing,  though  a  palliative  applicable  with  good  results 
in  certain  industries  and  under  certain  circumstances, 
holds  forth  no  promise  of  an  ultimate  solution  of  the  labor 
problem.  In  the  first  place,  it  frequently  injures  and 
antagonizes  the  concerted  efforts  of  working  men  to  better 
their  own  conditions  of  life  through  labor  organizations. 
Moreover,  profit  sharing  has  no  sufficient  economic  foun- 
dation, and  is,  consequently,  incapable  of  wide  applica- 
tion. Thirdly,  the  principle  itself  is  open  to  serious 
objections.  Nevertheless,  it  has  attained  notable  results 
in  numerous  instances,  and  the  causes  of  its  success  and 
failure  are  certainly  worthy  of  the  most  careful 
examination. 

(a)  Economic  Basis  of  Profit  Sharing:  However  desira- 
ble participation  may  be  as  an  ideal  system,  it  must,  to  be 

'  Industrial  Commissionj  XIV,  p.  339. 


3-^2  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

economically  successful,  not  only  overcome  the  ordinary 
business  contingencies,  but  it  must  also  create,  in  one  form 
or  another,  its  own  fund  for  distribution.  Otherwise  it  is 
not  upon  a  sound  financial  basis,  but  is  merely  a  form  of 
philanthropy.  Profit  sharing  may,  of  course,  be  carried 
on  upon  a  philanthropic  basis,  but,  when  so  applied,  it 
proves  nothing  whatever  so  far  as  the  great  problem  of 
labor  and  its  recompense  is  concerned. 

The  system  has,  indeed,  attained  a  certain  amount  of 
success  upon  the  solid  economic  basis  which  is  its  true 
raison  d'etre.  It  has  shown  itself  applicrble  to  a  con- 
siderable variety  of  industries,  and  in  both  large  and  small 
establishments.  Nevertheless,  though  it  is  difficult  to 
formulate  any  rule  or  set  of  rules  which  may  be  said  to 
govern  the  applicability  of  profit  sharing,  it  is  evident 
that  the  plan  has  not  only,  when  applied,  failed  to  meet 
with  anything  like  universal  success,  but  that  it  has  also 
failed  to  appeal  with  sufficient  force  to  the  hard-headed 
man  of  business  to  attain  serious  importance  as  an  indus- 
trial method.  It  is  undeniably  true  that,  upon  the  whole, 
profit  sharing  "has  accomplished  far  less  than  its  advo- 
cates have  prophesied,  and  perhaps  less  than  the  majority 
of  unprejudiced  critics  were  disposed  to  anticipate. '  '^ 

Greater  success  has  been  attained,  however,  in  France 
and  in  England  than  in  the  United  States,  where  many  of 
the  experiments  have  been  hastily  entered  upon  and  as 
quickly  abandoned,  without  adequate  knowledge  of  pre- 
vious accomplishments  in  the  field.     This  is  partly  ac- 

*  Hadley,  Economics,  p.  375. 


PROFIT   SHARING  373 

counted  for  by  the  greater  docility  and  frugality  of  the 
European  working  classes  as  compared  with  the  Ameri- 
can. Of  even  more  importance,  however,  is  the  fact  that 
it  is  only  when  laborers  are  not  working  up  to  a  high 
standard  of  efficiency  that  profit  sharing  can  be  success- 
ful. ' '  This  seems  to  be  the  reason  why  it  works  better  on 
the  Continent  than  in  England,  and  better  in  England 
than  in  America.  There  is  a  greater  chance  for  increase 
in  the  general  output  in  those  countries  where  the  men 
have  habitually  been  working  far  below  their  physical 
capacity ;  and  profit  sharing,  like  anything  else  which 
contributes  to  such  an  increase,  is  a  first-rate  thing  for 
the  workmen."^ 

Not  only,  however,  is  profit  sharing  incapable  of  stimu- 
lating to  extra  exertion  laborers  who  are  accustomed  to 
work  approximately  to  the  limit  of  their  physical  capac- 
ity, but  its  success  as  a  commercial  system  depends 
inevitably,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  upon  the  nature  of 
the  occupation,  for  "if  the  employee  is  to  create  an  extra 
fund  of  profits,  which  shall  at  least  provide  his  bonus, 
the  business  must  be  such  that  increased  industry,  skill, 
care,  or  economy  will  tell  upon  the  result.  If,  in  a  par- 
ticular factory,  the  wage  system  has  already  been  sup- 
plemented by  the  introduction  of  piece  work,  and  prizes 
for  economy  of  material  and  for  increase  of  production, 
and  if  the  profits  of  the  establishment  depend  in  a  high 
degree  upon  the  commercial  skill  of  the  firm  in  buying 
raw  material  and  selling  the  product,  profit  sharing  can 

*  Hadley,  Economics,  p.  377. 


374  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

hardly  be  expected  to  improve  the  situation  greatly."* 
Profit  sharing  undoubtedly  requires,  moreover,  a  some- 
what high  degree  of  intelligence  among  the  workmen. 
Experience  has  shown,  also,  that  for  the  successful  appli- 
cation of  participation  it  is  absolutely  requisite  that  the 
employer  should  have  an  intelligent  idea  of  the  system, 
should  apply  it  wisely,  and  should  not  indulge  in  Utopian 
anticipations. 

Still  other  difficulties  are  found  "  ( 1 )  in  the  smallness 
of  the  amount  which  can  thus  be  distributed  among  the 
workmen,  without  unduly  diminishing  the  employer's 
interest  in  production;  (2)  in  the  suspicions  likely  to 
arise  regarding  the  employer's  good  faith  in  declaring 
the  amount  thus  subject  to  distribution,  unless  the  work- 
meUj  or  a  committee  of  them,  are  to  be  allowed  such  access 
to  the  employer 's  books  and  accounts  as  few  business  men 
would  willingly  concede;  and  (3)  in  the  perplexing  ques- 
tion, what  shall  be  done,  under  such  a  system,  in  the  not 
infrequent  cases  where  the  employer  realizes,  not  a  profit, 
but  a  loss. '  '^ 

Moreover,  though  experience  shows  that  usually  there 
is  an  increase  of  zeal  in  the  working  force,  and  the  rela- 
tions between  employers  and  employees  are  excellent, 
there  have  been  exceptions,  even  to  this  rule.  In  many 
cases,  undoubtedly,  where  the  bonus  is  paid  only  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  "the  strength  of  the  incentive  to  activity., 

'Gilman,  Profit  Sharing,  pp.  .^93-394. 
*  Walker.  Political  Economy,  p.  350. 


PROFIT  SHARING  375 

which  the  hope  of  earning  bonus  affords,  is  seriously 
impaired  by  the  delay  in  its  payment." 

Industrial  partnership  shows  few  signs  of  extension, 
and,  though  it  has  proved  in  certain  instances  the  most 
brilliantly  successful  form  of  profit  sharing,  is  probably 
destined  to  only  a  circumscribed  existence  in  the  near 
future.  Profit  sharing  by  means  of  stock  ownership,  on 
the  other  hand,  seems  to  have  increased  in  favor,  espe- 
cially in  the  United  States,  within  recent  years.  This 
method  appeals  strongly  to  the  speculative  instinct,  which 
has  permeated  every  social  class,  and  finds  in  this  fact  its 
greatest  strength.  In  this  appeal  to  the  speculative 
instinct,  however,  it  finds  also  a  fundamental  weakness, 
and  possibly  even  a  certain  fundamental  viciousness. 

While  individually  many  profit  sharing  schemes  have 
been  eminently  successful,  as  a  type  they  have  attained 
only  limited  social  significance.  Mr.  Monroe,  in  the  arti- 
cle previously  mentioned,  arrives  at  two  general  con- 
clusions: "First,  that  such  a  system  will  succeed  only 
with  a  select  few  of  employers,  those  with  w^hom  social 
motives  have  an  extraordinary  influence  and  with  a  grade 
of  skilled  or  intelligent  labor.  Second,  such  a  system  is 
of  some  importance  to  society  from  a  statical  point  of 
view,  but  little,  if  any  at  all,  from  that  of  social  prog- 
ress."^ Though  these  conclusions  may  seem  somewhat 
too  unfavorable  to  the  system,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that 
individual  instances  of  successful  profit  sharing  are  no 
more  effective  in  the  solution  of  the  labor  problem  than 

^American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  I,  p.  709. 


376  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

are  individual  instances  of  successful  cooperative  colonies 
(b)  Ohjections  to  the  Principle  of  Profit  Sharing: 
There  are,  moreover,  several  objections  to  the  principle  of 
profit  sharing,  which  strike  at  the  root  of  the  system  and 
cast  doubt  upon  its  social  value,  regardless  of  its  economic 
foundation.  In  the  first  place,  "if  it  be  expedient  that 
manual  workers  should  share  in  the  general  prosperity 
or  depression  of  the  industry  in  which  they  are  engaged, 
the  sharing  of  profits  and  losses  made  by  individual  firms 
is  clearly  the  wrong  way  to  set  about  it.  This  result  can 
only  be  attained  by  a  formal  or  informal  sliding  scale  of 
wages,  dependent  on  the  general  conditions  of  the  indus- 
try, and  not  on  the  ability  of  individual  employers  to 
adapt  themselves  to  these  conditions."^ 

Another  serious  objection  to  the  system  "is  the  manner 
in  which  profit  sharing  offends  against  that  cardinal  prin- 
ciple of  industrial  remuneration  which  demands  'that 
every  man  shall  receive  his  own  reward  according  to  his 
own  labor. '  For  while,  under  the  ordinary  wage-system, 
the  remuneration  of  the  labor  of  the  employees  is  made 
wholly  independent  of  the  ultimate  financial  results  of 
the  business— results  which  depend,  in  the  main,  on  the 
skill  and  industry,  not  of  the  workmen,  but  of  their  mas- 
ter— under  the  method  of  profit  sharing,  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  the  workman  who,  in  the  hope  of  earning  'bonus 
to  labor, '  has  done  work  10  per  cent,  in  excess  of  the  nor- 
mal standard,  may,  even  under  a  liberal  scheme,  find  that, 
instead  of  receiving  an  addition  to  his  normal  wages  0%, 

*  Potter,  History  of  Cooperation,  p.  161. 


PROFIT   SHARING  377 

say  7  per  cent.,  the  bad  management  of  his  employer  has 
reduced  his  bonus  to  so  low  a  level  that  he  has  to  be  content 
with  a  supplement  equivalent  to  only  2  per  cent,  on  his 
wages,  or  that  *  *  no  bonus  whatever  is  forthcoming."^ 
As  President  Hadley  says :  "To  make  his  wages  depend 
on  net  profits,  under  these  circumstances,  is  to  force  him 
to  participate  in  the  speculations  of  his  employer— a 
result  neither  equitable  as  between  individuals  nor  desira- 
ble for  society  as  a  whole. ' ' 

Finally,  a  third  objection  which  has  been  brought 
against  the  principle  of  participation  is  that,  while  it  may, 
when  applied  in  individual  instances,  promote  industrial 
peace,  "the  nature  of  the  profit  sharing  method  is  such 
that  its  general  adoption,  so  far  from  decreasing  the 
occurrence  of  industrial  strife,  might  quite  conceivably 
multiply  the  causes  of  difference  between  employers  and 
employed."^  To  the  usual  causes  of  disagreement  there 
might  easily  be  added,  for  instance,  questions  concerning 
the  amount  and  the  distribution  of  the  bonus. 

References  :  There  are  several  comprehensive  general  works  upon 
the  subject  of  profit  sharing,  the  most  Important  of  which  are  :  Shar- 
ing the  Profits,  by  Miss  Mary  Whiton  Calkins.  1888  ;  Profit  Sharing  Be- 
tween Capital  and  Labor,  by  Mr.  Sedley  Taylor,  1886  ;  the  report  on 
"Profit  Sharing,"  by  Col.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  the  Seventeenth  Annual 
Report  of  the  (Massachusetts)  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1886.  pp. 
155-236:  Profit  Sharing  Between  Employer  and  Employee  (1889)  and 
A  Dividend  to  Labor  (  1899  ),  by  Mr.  Nicholas  Paine  Oilman.  The  last 
named  book,  though  only  partly  devoted  to  true  profit  sharing,  describes 
in  detail  some  of  the  most  recent  American  experiments.  The  student 
Is  advised  to  read  at  least  one  of  the  first  four  works.  Other  descrip- 
tions of  profit  sharing  experiments,  as  well  as  interesting  and  valuable 
articles  on  the  subject,  may  be  found  by  reference  to  the  files  of  the 
monthly  bulletin  published  from  1892  to  1896  by  the  Association  for 

'Schloss.  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration,  pp,  305-306. 
*  Ibid,  p.  295. 


378  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  Promotion  of  Profit  Sharing  and  entitled  Employer  and  Employed. 
Other  references  upon  specific  subjects  are  as  follows  : 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Economic   Aspects  of   Profit  Sharing : 

(o)  Schloss.  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration  (3d  ed.)i  pp. 
239-309. 

(b)  Hadley,  Economics,  pp.  370-378. 

2.  Experiments  in  the  United  States  : 

(o)  GUman,  "Profit  Sharing  in  the  United  States."  The  New 
England  Magazine,  New  Series,  Vol.  7,  pp.  120-128. 

(6)  Monroe,  "Profit  Sharing  in  the  United  States,"  American 
Journal  of  S^ociolngy .  Vol.    1,   pp.   68.")-700. 

(c)  Howerth,  "Profit  Sharing  at  Ivorydale,"  American  Journal 

of  Sociology,  Vol.   2,   pp.  43-57. 

(d)  Blackmar,   "Two  Examples  of  Successful  Profit  Sharing," 

The  Forum,  Vol.  XIX.  pp.  57-67. 

(e)  Cabot,    "An    Instance   of    Profit    Sharing,"   Review   of  Re- 

views, Vol.  26,  pp.  325-326. 

3.  Stock  Ownership  by  Employees  : 

(o)  Eighth  TSiennial  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  statistics 
of  loira,  pp.  13-15.  (Plan  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road.) 

(6)  Wellman,  "Profit  Sharing  in  the  Steel  Corporation,"  Re- 
view of  Reviews,  Vol.  27,  pp.  326-381. 


CHAPTER  X 


COOPERATION 


Cooperation  differs  from  profit  sharing  primarily  by 
reason  of  the  fact  that,  in  its  industrial  form,  at  least,  its 
aim  is  to  modify  radically,  and  finally  to  utterly  abolish, 
the  wage  system.  Moreover,  cooperation  is  essentially 
democratic,  while  profit  sharing  is  essentially  paternal- 
istic. The  latter  is  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  capitalist 
class  to  increase  net  profits  by  means  of  a  bonus  to  labor 
more  or  less  contingent  upon  increased  industry  and  care, 
while  the  former  is  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  working 
class  to  abolish  profits  by  distributing  surplus  funds 
among  those  whose  labor  or  trade  has  created  the  surplus. 
Profit  sharing  aims  to  increase  the  total  production  of 
wealth,  and  cooperation  aims  to  promote  its  more  equita- 
ble distribution.  Many  enthusiastic  cooperators,  in  fact, 
while  deprecating  political  socialism  in  many  of  its 
phases,  accept  the  socialist  state,  or  cooperative  common- 
wealth, as  their  ultimate  ideal. 

The  principle  of  cooperation  demands,  first,  the  dis- 
tribution, not  of  a  part,  but  of  the  whole,  of  the  profits. 
Secondly,  it  involves  a  radical  change  from  centralized, 
aristocratic   control   to   diffused,   democratic   control   of 

879 


380  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

industrj'^  or  trade.  Its  aim  is,  by  means  of  union,  to  dis- 
tribute throughout  all  classes  both  wealth  and  power. 

This  study,  however,  is  concerned  merely  with  work- 
ingmen's  cooperation.  The  farmers'  buying  and  selling 
organizations,  cooperative  creameries,  grain  elevators, 
fruit  agencies,  telephone  companies,  etc.,  are,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  laboring  man,  merely  successful  busi- 
ness organizations  of  the  joint-stock  or  "trust"  type,  and 
are  quite  as  far  removed  from  working  class  cooperation 
as  if  they  were  owned  and  operated  by  a  single  man.  Co- 
operative credit,  on  the  other  hand,  though  more  often 
used  by  the  middle  class,  is  sometimes  of  advantage  to 
wage  laborers,  while  consumers'  cooperation  primarily, 
and  producers'  cooperation  essentially,  are  working  class 
measures. 

1.  Methods  of  Cooperation:  The  word  cooperation  is 
applied  technically  to  unions  for  economic  advantage 
"whether  in  the  purchase  and  distribution  of  commodities 
for  consumption,  or  in  the  production  of  commodities,  or 
in  the  borrowing  and  lending  of  capital  among  work- 
men."^ There  are,  then,  three  different  forms  of  co- 
operation :  (a)  that  which  is  carried  on  by  associations  of 
persons  who  desire  to  benefit  themselves  as  cons|imers  by 
saving  the  merchant's  profits,  commonly  called  distribu- 
tive or,  more  properly,  consumers'  cooperation;  (b)  that 
which  is  carried  on  by  associations  of  persons  who  desire 
to  benefit  themselves  as  producers  by  eliminating  the 
employer's  profits,  commonly  called  productive  or  pro- 

1  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  Vol.  VI,  p.  338. 


COOPERATION  381 

diicers'  cooperation;  and  (c)  that  which  is  carried  on  by 
associations  of  persons  M'ho  desire  to  benefit  themselves 
by  the  use  of  their  combined  capital  and  their  combined 
credit.  Each  form  of  cooperation  presents  separate 
features,  advantages,  and  problems. 

(a)  Consumers'  Cooperation:  Distributive  cooperation 
consists  essentially  in  "a  union  of  many  consumers  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  in  the  purchase  of  commodities 
advantages  impossible  to  be  obtained  by  one,  through  an 
equitable  division  of  the  profits  derived  from  their  pur- 
chases."^ This  variety  of  cooperation  is  exemplified  by, 
and  has  been  most  thoroughly  and  consistently  developed 
in  the  great  system  of  cooperative  retail  and  wholesale 
stores  which  is  now  said  to  reach  about  one-seventh  of  the 
population  of  Great  Britain. 

The  two  essential  features  of  consumers'  cooperation 
are,  (a)  democratic  management  and  (b)  some  system  of 
dividing  profits  in  proportion  to  purchases.  Usually  the 
store  is  controlled  by  the  shareholders  on  the  principle  of 
"one  man  one  vote,"  regardless  of  the  number  of  shares 
he  may  hold,  and  this  principle  is  considered  essential  to 
true  cooperation.  In  some  cases  each  member  is  allowed 
to  hold  one  share,  and  in  other  cases  each  member  is 
allowed  to  hold  as  many  as  200  shares,  but  the  price  of  a 
share  is  usually,  in  the  latter  case,  very  low,  in  England, 
£1.  The  shares  themselves  seldom  entitle  the  holders  to 
anything  more  than  a  fixed  rate  of  interest,  which  is 
treated  as  one  of  the  expenses  of  the  business. 

'  Pevrntrrnth  Annual  Report  of  the  (Massachusetts)  Bureau  of  StaHs- 
tics  of  Labor,  p.  54. 


382  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

(1).  Methods  of  Dividing  Profits:  In  the  division  of 
profits  two  principal  methods  have  been  employed.  Prof- 
its may  be  divided  simply  among  shareholders  in  propor- 
tion to  their  purchases,  or  they  may  be  divided  among 
both  shareholders  and  non-shareholders,  the  latter  receiv- 
ing a  smaller  proportion,  usually  one-half,  the  dividend 
on  purchases  allotted  to  the  former.  The  first  of  these 
two  methods  is  that  which  is  followed,  for  instance,  by  the 
stores  which  have  been  recently  started  in  the  Central 
States  under  the  plan  of  the  Right  Relationship  League  of 
Chicago,  while  the  second  is  the  Rochdale,  or  English, 
method.  Sometimes  a  full  dividend  is  given  to  non-mem- 
bers and  only  one-half  is  paid  in  cash,  the  other  half  being 
credited  toward  the  purchase  of  a  share  of  stock.  In 
general  it  is  considered  good  business  policy  to  allow  non- 
members  to  share,  though  in  a  lesser  degree,  than  mem- 
bers, in  the  benefits  of  the  society. 

In  all  cases  where  the  profit  is  divided  only  among  the 
holders  of  stock,  the  number  of  shares  to  be  held  by  each 
individual  must  be  strictly  limited,  and  the  shares  must 
be  widely  distributed,  if  not  practically  unlimited  in  num- 
ber. Otherwise  the  concern  is  merely  a  joint-stock 
company  or  close  corporation,  and  the  shares  rise  and  fall 
in  value  with  the  success  or  failure  of  the  company.  In 
a  truly  cooperative  company  shares  remain  always  at  par, 
and  new  members  merely  add  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
business  and  consequently  to  the  dividends  of  the  other 
shareholders.  Members  are  usually  encouraged  to  leave 
their  dividends  undrawn,  and  these  are  used  in  the  exten- 


COOPERATION  383 

sion  of  the  business.     Thus  the  store  serves  also  as  a  sav- 
ings bank,  and  habits  of  thrift  are  formed. 

( 2 ) .  Prices :  Under  the  Rochdale  plan  of  cooperation 
the  current  prices  of  the  town  are  accepted  as  a  fair 
standard,  though  it  is  insisted  that  all  goods  shall  be  pure 
and  of  good  quality.  With  every  purchase  the  customer 
is  given  a  ticket  marked  with  the  amount  of  the  sale. 
These  tickets  are  presented  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  period, 
and  each  purchaser  receives  his  proportion  of  the  divi- 
dends, according  to  the  amount  of  his  trade. 

Some  cooperative  establishments  sell  at  the  lowest 
possible  prices  consistent  with  safety.  There  is,  however, 
serious  danger  under  this  plan  that  unforeseen  expenses 
or  losses  will  sweep  away  the  profits  and  even  the  capital 
of  the  business.  This  plan  also  necessitates  selling  only  to 
members,  while  if  non-members  are  allowed  to  make  pur- 
chases, particularly  if  they  are  allowed  to  share  in  divi- 
dends, the  store  is  effectively  advertised,  for  each  one 
experiences  for  himself  its  benefits. 

Moreover,  the  system  which  sells  at  current  prices  has 
three  great  advantages.  In  the  first  place  it  encourages 
thrift  by  lumping  savings  instead  of  dissipating  them 
over  small  purchases.  Secondly,  it  renders  it  difficult  to 
conceal  bad  administration.  Thirdly,  it  does  not  rouse,  by 
pretending  to  undersell  all  other  stores,  the  opposition 
and  keen  competition  of  the  regular  traders,  which  is 
sometimes  disastrous  to  new  enterprises.  It  has  not 
infrequently  happened  that  the  other  stores  have  sold  cer- 
tain articles  below  cost  to  attract  trade  and,  by  advertising 


384  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

these  articles,  have  persuaded  cooperators  that  they  could 
really  do  better  elsewhere.  The  method  of  selling  at 
market  prices  and  then  refunding  the  surplus  indirectly 
but  effectually  accomplishes  Kobert  Owen's  ideal  of  the 
elimination  of  profit  on  price. 

(3).  Cash  Payments:  One  of  the  cardinal  principles 
of  the  Rochdale  system,  and  thus  far  of  all  other  per- 
manently successful  experiments  in  consumers'  coopera- 
tion, has  been  cash  payments,  and,  though  this  principle  is 
not  universally  adhered  to  even  by  the  Rochdale  stores, 
the  giving  of  credit  has  probably  been  the  most  prolific 
single  cause  of  disaster  to  cooperative  enterprises.  "By 
ready-money  payment,  distributing  societies  have  the 
great  advantage  of  not  incurring  losses  through  bad  debts, 
of  having  a  simple  system  of  accounts,  a  less  complicated 
administration,  of  not  involving  the  society  in  the  costs  of 
legal  disputes,  and  of  shutting  the  door  on  remonstrances 
in  case  the  credit  be  denied,  qualified  or  disowned. 
Further,  by  cash  payment  the  society  has  no  need  to  buy 
wholesale  on  credit,  and  is  thus  certain  to  obtain  the 
lowest  possible  prices,  and  may,  with  very  little  capital, 
have  a  large  circle  of  business,  while  its  operations  are 
always  safe. '  '^ 

(4).  Share  of  Employees:  As  a  rule  the  employees 
of  consumers'  cooperative  societies  do  not  share  in  the 
profits  except  as  they  may  be  members  and  receive  divi- 
dends on  purchases,  nor  do  they  usually,  as  employees, 
have  any  voice  in  the  management  of  the  business.     They 

'Pizzamlgllo,  Distributive  Cooperation,  p.  55. 


COOPERATION  385 

are  not  generally,  even  as  members,  allowed  to  vote  at 
-elections.  Nevertheless,  there  has  been  a  strong  and  par- 
tially successful  movement  in  Great  Britain  to  introduce 
profit  sharing  into  the  distributive  associations,  as  a  par- 
tial compromise  between  the  two  ideals  of  consumers'  and 
producers'  cooperation.  That  employees,  especially  in 
the  productive  branches  of  distributive  enterprises,  should 
share  in  the  benefits  of  the  system  seems  to  be  clearly  in 
accord  with  cooperative  principles.  Even  when  such  a 
bonus  is  given,  however,  it  is  awarded  upon  the  usual 
capitalistic  grounds,  because  it  is  believed  that  the 
employees  will  be  thus  induced,  by  greater  care  and 
diligence,  to  increase  the  prosperity  of  the  business.  It  is 
simply  the  scheme  of  capitalistic  profit  sharing  applied 
to  consumers'  cooperation. 

(5).  Wholesale  Societies:  The  cooperative  wholesale 
societies  which  have  had  such  brilliant  success  in  England 
and  Scotland,  were  started  by  the  retail  societies  for  the 
purpose  of  abolishing  the  profits  of  the  wholesale  trade 
for  the  benefit  of  their  members.  They  are  organized 
upon  precisely  the  same  plan  as  the  retail  stores,  with 
societies,  instead  of  individuals,  as  members. 

(6).  Discount  Societies:  One  form  of  distributive 
cooperation  which  is  somewhat  widely  prevalent  in 
Europe  and  in  the  United  States  is  that  of  societies  which 
do  not  sell  on  their  own  account,  but  obtain  reductions 
from  traders  in  consideration  of  the  steady  custom  of 
Ineir  issmbers.  This  method  is  often  adopted  by  mutual 
aid  societies  and  by  farmers '  organizations.  The  Patrons 
36 


386  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

of  Industry  and  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  for  instance, 
though  they  have  sometimes  established  cociperative 
stores,  have  more  often  contracted  with  local  dealers  for 
their  supplies  or  bought  directly  from  the  manufacturer. 
Sometimes  regular  cooperative  stores  obtain  such  reduc- 
tions for  members  upon  goods  which  they  themselves  do 
not  carry.  Thus  in  the  United  States,  in  1895,  ten 
societies  reported  ' '  a  considerable  trade  by  their  members 
at  special  discounts  at  private  stores  dealing  in  goods  not 
kept  by  the  societies."  This  discount  was  obtained  in 
some  cases  directly,  and  in  others  it  was  paid  to  the  society 
and  added  to  the  member's  dividend. 

(b)  Producers'  Cooperation:  The  cooperation  of 
workmen  in  production  varies  greatly  from  the  con- 
sumers' cooperation  just  described,  and  the  two  should  be 
clearly  distinguished  as  different  species  of  association. 
Consumers'  cooperation  is  designed  to  lower  prices  for 
the  benefit  of  the  purchaser,  while  producers'  cooperation 
is  designed  to  raise  prices  for  the  benefit  of  the  laborer. 
Both  are  associations  of  workmen  for  their  own  advan° 
tage,  but  the  one  protects  the  interests  of  the  workman  ag 
consumer  and  the  other  protects  his  interests  as  producer. 
It  is  apparent  that,  as  the  interests  of  buyer  and  seller, 
in  the  matter  of  price,  are  conflicting,  there  is  an  essen- 
tial antagonism  between  consumers'  and  producers' 
cooperation. 

Nevertheless,  both  are  primarily  unions  for  economic 
advantage  and  both  are  efforts  to  abolish  profits,— con- 
sumers' cooperation  +<^  abolish  the  profits  of  the  middle- 


COOPERATION  387 

man  and  producers'  cooperation  to  abolish  the  profits  of 
the  employer.  In  the  latter  case  the  object  is  effected  by 
making  the  functional  employer  an  association  of  the 
workmen  themselves.  Producers'  cooperation,  however, 
has  never  shown  the  vigor  and  vitality  which  have  char- 
acterized associations  of  consumers. 

The  essential  features  of  producers'  or  industrial  co- 
operation ''are  (A)  that  each  group  of  workers  is  to  be 
associated  by  their  own  free  choice,  (B)  that  these  asso- 
ciates shall  work  under  a  leader  elected  and  removable  by 
themselves,  and  (C)  that  the  collective  remuneration  of 
the  labor  performed  by  the  group  shall  be  divided  among 
all  its  numbers  (including  this  leader)  in  such  a  manner 
as  shall  be  arranged,  upon  principles  recognized  as  equita- 
ble, by  the  associates  themselves."^  Some  authorities 
insist  that  the  manager  must  be  chosen  from  among  the 
workmen,  but  others  allow  an  outsider,  not  necessarily  a 
workingman,  to  be  elected. 

(1).  Ownership  of  Capital:  It  is,  of  course,  essential 
in  such  an  association  that  all  share  capital,  at  least, 
which  carries  with  it  a  vote  in  the  management,  shall  be 
owned  by  the  workmen.  In  France  the  "normal  type" 
of  industrial  cooperation  presents,  as  to  the  ownership  of 
capital,  the  following  characteristic  features:  (a)  The 
share  capital  must  be  owned  by  workmen  engaged  in  the 
particular  trades  carried  on  by  the  association,  so  that, 
if  not  actually  employed  by  the  cooperative  company,  they 
may  be  capable  of  such  employment  when  the  business  has 

^  Schloss,  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration,  p.  228. 


388  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

extended;  (b)  workmen  in  other  trades  may  be  share« 
holders  if  actually  employed  by  the  concern;  and  (c) 
shares  once  acquired  under  these  conditions  may  be  held 
until  death,  but  can  be  transferred  only  to  workmen  who 
fulfill  the  qualifications.  It  is  essential  that  voting 
power  be  equal,  regardless  of  the  number  of  shares  held. 
This  requirement  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  differ- 
ences between  producers'  cooperation  and  profit  sharing. 
(2).  Distribution  of  Frojits:  In  the  distribution  of 
the  profits  of  a  cooperative,  as  of  a  profit  sharing  com- 
pany, there  are  three  factors  to  be  considered,— labor, 
capital  and  custom.  The  first,  of  course,  under  this  sys- 
tem, is  the  fundamental  claimant,  and  very  frequently  the 
entire  net  profit  is  divided  among  the  whole  body  of  work- 
ers, apportioning  the  share  of  each  individual  according 
to  some  fixed  scale  which  determines  as  nearly  as  possible 
the  exact  contribution  of  each  grade  of  labor  to  the  total 
product.  This  division  is  usually  based  upon  wages,  but 
might  conceivably  be  determined  by  hours  of  labor,  or  by 
an  arbitrary  scale  determined  by  statisticians  upon  the 
basis  of  the  three  elements  of  skill,  effort  and  time. 
Usually,  however,  it  is  required  that  each  workman,  to 
share  in  profits,  must  hold  at  least  one  or  more  shares  of 
stock,  and  such  ownership  is  often  made  the  basis  of  par- 
ticipation, the  non-owner  working  merely  for  wages  as 
in  other  establishments.  If,  however,  the  profits  are 
divided  upon  the  basis  of  shares  of  stock,  and  not  upon  the 
basis  of  labor,  the  enterprise  is  either  profit  sharing  by 
means  of  stock  ownership  or  it  is  merely  a  system  of  joint' 


COOPERATION  389 

«tock  organization.  In  any  case  it  is  essential  to  a 
cooperative  society  that  some  sort  of  adequate  provision 
be  made  to  prevent  the  accumulation  of  the  shares  in  a 
few  hands. 

Theoretically,  it  is  considered  more  equitable  to  ascer- 
tain in  one  common  denominator  the  value  contributed  by 
the  workers,  by  the  capitalists  and  by  the  customers,  and 
to  divide  the  profits  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  this 
value  represented  by  each  individual.  Under  such  a  sys- 
tem wages  are  considered  as  equivalent  to  interest,  and 
purchases  as  equivalent  to  capital.  In  practice,  either 
or  both  of  the  factors,  capital  and  custom,  are  sometimes 
admitted  to  share  in  the  profits  of  industrial  cooperation. 

(3).  Individualist  and  Federalist  Schools:  In  regard 
to  the  general  method  of  procedure,  there  are  two  distinct 
schools  of  productive  cooperators, — the  individualists  and 
the  federalists.  "The  first  hold  that  individual  bodies  of 
workingmen  should  start  for  themselves  in  productive 
enterprises,  obtaining  their  capital  either  from  their  own 
savings  or  by  loan.  The  business  should  then  be  con- 
ducted independently  of  the  distributive  societies,  and 
managed  by  the  workingmen  immediately  interested,  who 
may,  if  necessary,  go  into  the  open  market  and  secure 
trade  by  superior  energy  or  on  account  of  the  high  quality 
of  their  product.  The  federalists,  on  the  other  hand, 
believe  that  the  federated  stores  should  provide  the  basis 
for  productive  effort ;  the  capital  saved  in  the  stores 
should  be  used ;  the  demand  of  the  stores  should  supply 
the  necessary  market,  and  the  management  should  be  by 


390  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

committee,  precisely  as  the  wholesale  societies  are  man- 
aged. *  *  *  The  individualist  would  permit  individual 
shareholders;  the  federalist  would  not,  believing  such 
permission  dangerous  as  tending  to  joint-stockism.  Strict 
adherence  to  the  federalist  system,  as  usually  presented, 
would  exclude  the  worker  from  participation  in  profits, 
except  in  his  function  as  consumer  as  a  member  of  some 
store  having  capital  invested  in  the  works,  and  except  as 
a  bonus  or  gratuity  might  be  given  him  for  superior  work 
or  extraordinary  skill.  In  the  works  at  present  conducted 
by  the  English  Wholesale  Society  upon  substantially  this 
plan,  the  workers,  as  workers,  do  not  share  la  profits  at 
all."i 

This  latter  plan,  though  it  avoids  the  peculiar  difficul- 
ties and  dangers  of  true  industrial  cooperation,  is  not,  so 
far  as  the  workers  are  concerned,  in  any  sense  cooperative. 
Even  when,  as  in  the  Scottish  Wholesale  Society,  the 
workers  receive  a  liberal  share  of  the  profits,  the  plan  is 
not  producers'  cooperation,  but  is  simply  profit  sharing 
practiced  by  a  consumers'  cooperative  association. 

(c)  Cooperative  Credit:  Cooperative  credit,  the  third 
variety  of  cooperation,  is  of  two  kinds,  (a)  banking  asso- 
ciations, such  as  the  Credit  Unions  of  Germany,  and  (b) 
Building  and  Loan  Associations,  which  have  attained 
their  greatest  success  in  the  United  States. 

(1).  Credit  Unions:  Credit  Unions  are  designed  to 
give  to  the  poor  and  to  those  of  small  means  the  same 


*  Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  the  (Massachusetts)  Bureau  of  Static 
ties  of  Lahor.  pp.  122-123. 


COOPERATION  391 

advantages  in  the  use  of  credit  that  are  enjoyed  bj^  the 
rich.  Shares  cost  about  $20  or  $25  each,  payable  usually 
in  monthly  installments,  and  no  individual  can  hold  more 
than  one  share,  though  the  number  of  stockholders  is 
unlimited.  Loans  are  made  only  to  members  and  for 
a  short  period,  but  may  usually  be  renewed  if,  at  the  same 
time,  an  installment  is  paid.  The  securities  are  in  large 
part  personal  but,  as  all  members  are  shareholders  and 
are  individually  fully  liable  for  debts,  they  take  a  deep 
personal  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  association  and  the 
tendency  to  speculate  is  kept  at  a  minimum. 

The  first  Credit  Union  was  started  in  1850,  and  by  1860 
there  were  300  in  Germany,  while  in  1901  there  were 
12,140.  Meanwhile,  this  form  of  cooperation  has  spread 
to  other  European  countries,  especially  Austria,  and 
has  met  with  phenomenal  success.  In  the  membership  of 
the  Credit  Unions,  however,  small  employers  and  those 
having  an  independent  business  of  their  own  predominate, 
and  the  wage  earners  constitute,  in  Germany  at  least,  only 
about  10  per  cent,  of  the  members.  These  associations 
have  been  employed  as  one  means  of  fostering  small  indus- 
tries and  of  enabling  them  to  compete  successfully  with 
large  establishments. 

(2).  Building  and  Loan  Associations:  Building  and 
Loan  Associations,  representing  the  second  species  of 
credit  cooperation,  are  used,  on  the  other  hand,  only  to 
enable  members  to  acquire  homes,  and  the  loans  are  sel- 
dom or  never  given  to  foster  any  form  of  industry.  Their 
principle  is  concentration,  and  their  funds  are  collected 


392  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

from  members  and  loaned  to  members.  They  thus  serve, 
like  the  Credit  Unions,  as  a  combination  savings  bank  and 
loan  agency.  Shares  in  these  associations  are  compara- 
tively high  priced,  being  usually  about  $200,  but  they  are 
paid  in  monthly  installments,  and  the  member  is  entitled 
to  a  loan  as  soon  as  his  payments  have  begun.  The  secur- 
ity is,  of  course,  the  house  upon  which  the  loan  is  made. 

The  details  of  procedure  are  quite  complex  and  tech- 
nical, and  vary  with  the  different  associations,  but  the 
principle  is  always  the  same.  Each  member  pays  a  cer- 
tain sum,  perhaps  $1  per  share,  each  month,  and  the 
money  so  received,  together  with  the  interest  on  existing 
loans,  is  turned  over  to  the  highest  bidder,  who  pledges 
in  return  a  sufficient  number  of  shares,  and  also  gives 
satisfactory  security  on  the  property  in  which  the  money 
is  to  be  invested.  The  borrower  must  hold  a  sufficient 
number  of  shares  to  cover  the  debt,  and  must  continue  to 
pay  dues  upon  these  shares,  as  well  as  interest,  until 
through  these  payments  and  the  accrued  profits  they  have 
reached  maturity,  when  the  debt  is  cancelled.  The  mar- 
gin between  the  actual  sum  which  is  turned  over  to  the 
borrower,  and  the  sum  which  he  bids,  is  called  the 
premium. 

The  payments  usually  last  for  about  eight  years,  but  in 
the  meantime  the  member  has  the  use  of  the  house  and, 
although  he  seems  temporarily  to  be  paying  somewhat 
high  rent,  is  eventually  full  owner.  If  he  had  bought  on 
the  usual  installment  plan  he  would  probably  have  had  a 
heavy  first  payment  which  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 


COOPERATION  393 

meet,  and,  in  addition,  would  have  had  to  pay  considerably 
more  than  the  cash  price  before  he  was  through. 

The  Building  and  Loan  Associations  have  attained  far 
greater  results  in  the  United  States  than  all  other  forms 
of  cooperation  combined,  and  have  met  with  a  fair  degree 
of  success  in  Great  Britain  and  other  countries.  In  1902- 
1903  there  were  repoi-ted  to  be  in  the  United  States  5,299 
of  these  associations  with  a  membership  of  1,530,707,  and 
total  assets  of  $577,228,014.  While  the  Building  and 
Loan  Associations,  however,  have  doubtless  aided  many 
of  the  working  class  to  obtain  homes,  they  are  patronized 
more  often  by  small  business  and  professional  men,  and 
by  clerks,  managers  and  other  salaried  members  of  the 
middle  and  lower  middle  class.  Moreover,  "the  chief 
commercial  profit  of  such  societies  goes  to  the  outside 
investors,  who  do  not  intend  to  borrow."^  In  general, 
Building  and  Loan  Associations,  although  they  have  often 
encouraged  workmen  to  save  and  to  acquire  real  estate, 
and  have  thus  placed  such  workmen  upon  the  conservative 
side  of  many  economic  problems,  have  utterly  failed  to 
reach  the  great  mass  of  the  laborers,  who  are  obliged  to 
live  from  hand  to  mouth  because  to  save  would  mean  the 
deprivation  of  those  minimum  necessities  which  represent 
the  standard  of  life. 

Neither  Credit  Unions  nor  Building  and  Loan  Associa- 
tions, then,  require  any  detailed  treatment  in  a  study  of 
workingmen's  cooperation.  Though  eminently  success- 
ful in  its  field,  credit  cooperation  reaches  only  the  upper 

*  Hadley,  Economics,  p.  389. 


394  LABOR  PROBLiJMS 

fringe  of  the  working  class,  and,  as  compared  with  con- 
sumers' and  with  producers'  cooperation,  has  little  bear- 
ing upon  the  labor  problem. 

2.  Development  of  Consumers'  Cooperation:  Al- 
though a  number  of  sporadic  experiments  in  distributive 
cooperation  were  made  near  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century, — the  first  recorded  case  in  1794 — these  were  prac- 
tically only  phases  of  charity.  The  first  genuine  co- 
operative movement  in  England  began  in  1824  and 
lasted  until  1834  under  the  direct  guidance  of  Robert 
Owen,  from  whom  English  cooperators  drew  their  orig- 
inal inspiration.  Robert  Owen's  ideal,  however,  was 
essentially  communistic,  and  he  expected  from  the  appli- 
cation of  the  principle  of  cooperation  a  complete  social 
transformation  which  should  practically  abolish  compe- 
tition. Among  ardent  cooperators  this  ideal  is  not  yet 
extinct,  but  in  practical  application  the  elimination  of 
profit  on  price  has,  in  general,  satisfied  the  aims  of  the 
distributive  stores. 

(a)  The  Rochdale  System:  The  present  extensive  and 
stable  system  of  consumers'  cooperation  in  Great  Britain 
originated  with  the  Rochdale  Equitable  Pioneers,  an  asso- 
ciation of  twenty-eight  Lancashire  Avorkingmen,  each  of 
whom  contributed  £1  to  furnish  the  original  capital. 
Robert  Owen  was  the  theoretical  father  of  British  co- 
operation, but  these  twentj^-eight  workingmen  were  the 
practical  pioneers  of  the  movement. 

Though  starting  upon  an  extremely  limited  scale,  this 
association    met    with    steadv    and    substantial    success. 


COOPERATION  395 

Within  a  year  there  were  74  members,  and  the  capital  had 
increased  to  £181.  By  1854  there  were  900,  and  the 
society  had  a  capital  of  £7,172.  At  the  same  time,  the 
scope  of  the  business  constantly  broadened,  new  depart- 
ments were  added,  and  new  branches  started.  In  1854 
the  original  idea,  which  included  the  employment  of 
members,  was  further  carried  out  by  the  starting  of  a 
cotton-spinning  mill,  and  other  productive  departments 
have  been  added  from  time  to  time. 

Meanwhile,  the  Rochdale  plan  of  cooperation  was 
adopted  in  hundreds  of  other  societies,  and  became  the 
basis,  not  only  of  the  strong  cooperative  movement  of 
Great  Britain,  but  of  a  large  number  of  experiments  in 
the  United  States  and  other  countries.  The  United 
Kingdom,  however,  has  always  maintained  its  lead  in 
consumers'  cooperation,  and  had,  in  1902,  1,624  societies 
with  1,915,885  members.  A  great  part  of  the  success  of 
the  system  has  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  direct  and 
telling  appeal  is  not  to  sentiment,  but  to  the  more  per- 
manent motives  of  material  advantage.  The  qualities 
demanded  are  intellectual  rather  than  moral,  in  the  sense 
in  which  morality  demands  absolute  personal  sacrifice. 

(b)  The  English  and  Scottish  Wholesale  Societies  and 
Consumers'  Cooperative  Production:  The  English 
"Wholesale  Society  was  established  in  1864  for  the  purpose 
of  completing  the  independence  of  the  retail  stores,  of 
furnishing  supplies  of  undoubted  parity,  and  of  saving 
the  profits  of  the  wholesale  trade.  From  the  first  this 
society  was  eminently  successful,  and  it  is  now  said  to  be 


396  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  largest  mercantile  establishment  in  the  world.  Tha 
headquarters  are  at  Manchester,  but  branches  are  also 
maintained  at  other  points,  and  about  thirty  resident 
buyers  are  kept  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  while  nine  ships 
ply  between  England  and  Ireland  and  England  and  the 
Continent.  In  1868  the  Scottish  Wholesale  Society  was 
started  upon  practically  the  same  plan. 

It  has  been  considered  best  not  to  turn  back  the  savings 
of  profits  from  the  wholesale  societies  to  the  retail  stores, 
for  this  would  either  discourage  thrift,  or  would  leave 
them  with  a  surplus  which  they  could  not  profitably  use. 
The  accumulated  profits  of  the  wholesale  trade  have,  con- 
sequently, been  invested  in  many  different  varieties  of 
productive  enterprise,  and  thus  the  wholesale  houses  have 
become  powerful  competitors,  not  only  of  private  pro- 
ducers, but  of  producers'  cooperative  societies.  Many  of 
the  retail  stores,  moreover,  manufacture  goods  for  mem- 
bers upon  a  large  scale,  while  in  the  independent  Co- 
operative Baking  Societies  and  Corn  Mills  production  is 
carried  on  by  associations  of  consumers  and  in  their 
interests.  In  1902,  776  societies  established  primarily  for 
distribution  reported  that  they  employed  31,392  persons 
in  production  and  that  their  annual  sales  of  goods  manu- 
factured by  themselves  amounted  to  £10,361,648.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  figures  do  not  represent 
true  producers'  cooperation,  but  merely  production  as 
carried  on  by  consumers'  societies.  As  a  rule  these 
societies  do  not  even  pay  a  profit  sharing  bonus  to  labor. 
The  Scottish  Wholesale  Society,  however,  has  for  many 


COOPERATION  397 

years  given  a  share  in  profits  to  its  employees,  and  the 
employees'  bonus,  in  both  the  distributive  and  the  pro- 
ductive departments,  is  at  the  same  rate  as  the  dividend 
on  members'  purchases. 

(c)  Consumers'  Cooperation  in  Other  European  Coun- 
tries: Considerable  progress  in  consumers'  cooperation 
has  been  made  in  other  European  countries,  and  since 
1895  annual  International  Cooperative  Congresses  have 
been  held,  with  delegates  from  nearly  every  civilized 
nation  of  the  world.  France  had,  in  1901,  695  coopera- 
tive bakeries  and  864  distributive  associations,  the  mem- 
bership of  700  of  which  was  325,865.  In  the  same  year 
there  were,  in  the  German  Empire,  1,528  cooperative 
stores,  and  also  1,941  agricultural  and  211  industrial 
supply  associations.  Holland  had,  in  1902,  131,  and 
Switzerland  in  1899,  344  cooperative  stores,  while  in  1898 
Denmark  had  637,  Italy  508  and  Austria  714  distributive 
establishments  of  various  kinds.  In  Belgium,  the  social- 
ists have  developed  a  highly  successful  system  of  distribu- 
tive cooperation,  which  includes  the  Maison  du  Peuple, 
of  Brussels,.jLnii  th.eVeoruit  of  Ghent,  which  in  1900  had 
a  membership  of  7,000  families,  and  operated  a  large 
bakery,  clothing  and  shoe  stores,  a  coal  yard,  seven  gro- 
ceries and  five  pharmacies. 

(d)  History  of  the  Movement  in  the  United  States: 
It  is  impossible  to  obtain  adequate  statistics  concerning 
either  consumers'  or  producers'  cooperation  in  the 
United  States,  for  there  has  never  been  any  central 
organization  which  could  exercise  a  cohesive  force  over 


398  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  movement.     Moreover,  very  few,  even  of  the  con 
Burners'  societies,  have  had  more  than  a  brief  existence, 
and  many  cooperative  experiments  have  doubtless  lived 
and  died  in  obscurity,  known  only  to  a  small  circle  of 
interested  persons. 

(1).  The  Union  Stores:  The  first  known  attempt  at 
distributive  cooperation  in  the  United  States  was  made 
about  1844  by  a  Boston  tailor,  who  started  a  so-called 
'  *  dividing  store ' '  among  the  members  of  the  New  England 
Association  of  Mechanics  and  Workingmen.  From  this 
beginning  sprang,  in  1847,  the  Workingmen's  Protective 
Union,  later  called  the  New  England  Protective  Union. 
In  October,  1852,  403  sub-divisions  had  been  organized, 
and  of  these,  165  reported  sales  during  the  previous  year 
amounting  to  $1,696,825.46. 

In  1853,  however,  a  split  took  place  and  the  American 
Protective  Union  was  started.  For  a  time  this  organiza- 
tion had  divisions  in  at  least  ten  states,  and  at  its  annual 
convention  in  1857  there  were  reported  to  be  350  divis- 
ions, mostly  in  New  England.  The  aggregate  capital  in 
that  year  was  $291,000,  and  the  annual  trade  $2,000,000. 
Meanwhile,  "the  original  or  New  England  Protective 
Union,  though  seriously  crippled  by  the  schism  in  its 
ranks,  had  reports  in  1856  from  sixty-three  divisions,  with 
three  thousand  five  hundred  and  eighty-four  members, 
$130,912  cfl^ital,  and  a  trade  for  the  preceding  year  of 
$1,005,882.02.  "1 

The  union  stores  sold  at  first  only  to  stockholders,  but 

*Bemi8,  History  of  Cooperation  in  titc  Lnitcd  Staicn,  p.  23. 


COOPERATION  399 

after  ?  ?e\v  years  they  were  thrown  open  to  thy  general 
public.  Though  under  the  rules  sales  were  to  be  made 
only  for  cash,  credit  was  given  by  many  divisions.  Goods 
were  supposed  to  be  sold  as  near  cost  as  possible,  but  as 
profits  were  divided  among  shareholders,  the  temptation 
was  often  yielded  to  of  increasing  the  dividends  by  an 
increase  of  prices.  Thus  many  of  these  societies  became 
merely  joint-stock  companies. 

About  1858,  moreover,  both  organizations  began  to 
decline,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  they  finally 
went  to  pieces.  Among  the  causes  of  failure  were  (a) 
the  difficulties  of  the  system  of  selling  at  cost,  (b)  thi 
choice  of  incompetent  managers,  (c)  the  use  of  credit, 
and  (d)  "the  underlying  causes  of  all  cooperative  fail- 
ures,"— lack  of  intelligence  and  of  the  spirit  of  codpera- 
tion.  All  of  the  769  stores  started  either  disappeared  or 
were  transformed  into  private  establishments,  and  none 
now  survive  as  cooperative  enterprises. 

(?.).  The  Patrons  of  Husbandry:  The  next  effort 
towards  cooperative  distribution  w^as  made  in  the  grange 
stores  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry,  a  farmers'  organi- 
zation started  in  1866.  This  society  was  for  a  time 
brilliantly  successful  and  established  many  cooperative 
experiments.  Most  of  these,  however,  like  the  union 
stores,  which  they  closely  resembled,  soon  lost  their 
cooperative  character.  Nevertheless,  in  1885,  there  was 
reported  to  be  in  Texas  a  wholesale  society  and  about  150 
retail  stores  in  connection  with  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry, 
and,  though  by  1896  cooperation  in  that  state  had  greatly 


400  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

declined  and  the  small  local  societies  had  largely  died  out 
the  trade  of  the  wholesale  society  for  1894-95  was  reported 
as  $65,000,  and  the  commission  business  amounted  to 
$222,661.91. 

(3).  The  Sovereigns  of  Industry:  Meanwhile,  in 
1874,  the  Sovereigns  of  Industry  appeared  upon  the  field, 
and  to  this  organization  cooperation  owes  a  great  impetus. 
In  1875,  101  councils,  with  6,670  members,  reported  that 
they  had  in  practice  some  method  of  supplying  members 
with  goods.  In  many  cases  agents  were  empowered  "to 
buy  for  cash  at  wholesale  prices,  at  regular  intervals  of 
a  week  or  longer,  such  goods  as  the  members  of  the  local 
council  deposited  money  for  in  advance."^  In  other 
cases,  as  in  the  Springfield  store,  which  was  the  largest 
and  oldest  experiment  of  the  Sovereigns,  the  plan  of  the 
union  stores  was  adopted.  In  this  case  a  change  was 
made  in  1878  to  the  Rochdale  plan,  but  too  late  to  prevent 
failure  in  1879.  About  one-half  of  the  stores  started 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Sovereigns  of  Industry,  how- 
ever, and  all  of  those  which  succeeded, — as,  for  instance, 
that  at  Dover,  New  Jersey,  which  prospered  from  1874  to 
1895,— were  founded  originally  upon  the  Rochdale  plan. 
Thus  the  Sovereigns  of  Industry  may  be  said  to  have  first 
firmly  established  the  Rochdale  system  in  this  country. 

The  order  was  dissolved  in  1879,  but  some  of  the  stores 
continued  to  exist  independently,  while  in  many  that  sus- 
pended there  was  no  financial  failure.  The  Patrons  of 
Industry  and  the  Farmers'  Alliance  have  also  bought 

1  Bemls,  History  of  Cooperation  in  the  United  States,  p.  40. 


COOPERATION  401 

supplies  cooperatively  for  the  benefit  of  their  members. 

(4).  The  Labor  Exchange:  Cooperative  distribution 
in  this  country  has  been  marked  by  one  development 
which  is  original  and  interesting,  if  not  practical, — the 
Labor  Exchange.  The  plan  is  for  members  to  deposit 
any  commodity  they  wish,  and  receive  in  pajTnent  a  labor 
check  for  its  value  in  the  local  wholesale  market.  These 
checks  the  depositor  may  use  to  buy,  at  retail  prices,  what- 
ever he  desires  from  the  Exchange.  The  goods  deposited 
may  be  sold  to  outsiders,  also,  either  for  Exchange  checks 
or  for  legal  money.  The  first  Labor  Exchange  was 
organized  in  1889  at  Independence,  Missouri,  bj^  Mr.  G.  B. 
De  Bernardi,  and  it  was  claimed  that  in  June,  1896,  there 
were  135  branch  Exchanges  scattered  through  thirty-two 
states,  with  a  membership  of  6,000.  In  1895,  the  Labor 
Exchange  of  Topeka,  Kansas,  reported  a  business  of 
$10,000,  with  a  net  profit  of  $1,000.  This  movement,  how- 
ever, lost  strength  and  character  after  the  death  of  the 
founder,  and  is  now  little  more  than  a  memory. 

(e)  Growth  and  Present  Status  of  Consumers'  Coopera- 
tion in  the  United  States:  A  fairly  exhaustive  investiga- 
tion made  in  1886  by  five  graduates  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University  disclosed  19  cooperative  stores  then  in  exist- 
ence in  New  England,  and  30  outside  of  New  England,  not 
including  several  partially  cooperative  enterprises  among 
the  Mormons,  and  one  at  Allegan,  Michigan.  By  1896, 
however,  6  of  the  New  England  stores,  and  24  of  those 
outside  of  New  England,  had  disappeared,  while  soma 
16  new  associations  had  been  started  in  states  out  of  and 


402  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

at  least  13  in  New  Eng^land.  Meanwhile  the  total  cooper^ 
ative  trade  of  New  England  had  doubled  in  value,  though 
that  outside  of  New  England  had  decreased  from  $1,000,- 
000  to  $900,000.  ]\Iost  of  these  stores  were  on  the  Roch- 
dale plan. 

In  1896  the  total  membership  of  26  societies  in  New 
England  was  10,692,  and  that  of  23  outside  of  New  Eng- 
land was  6,115.  Moreover,  there  were  known  to  be 
several,  "and  perhaps  over  20  cooperative  societies  out- 
side of  and  even  in  New  England ' '  from  which  no  reports 
were  made.  Adding  the  6,000  members  claimed  by  the 
Labor  Exchanges,  the  total  membership  in  all  distributive 
cooperative  associations  in  1896  was  about  25,000.  This 
does  not  include  the  Zion  's  Cooperative  Mercantile  Insti- 
tution of  Salt  Lake  City,  which  is  conducted  by  the  Mor- 
mon church,  and  supplies  similar  stores  in  nearly  every 
Mormon  town  throughout  Utah. 

No  recent  statistics  of  the  cooperative  movement  are 
available ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  state  with  any  certainty 
the  present  numbers,  trade  or  membership  of  cooperative 
distributive  associations  in  the  United  States  as  a  whole. 
It  is  known,  however,  that  in  INIay,  1904,  there  were  at 
least  43  stores  in  New  England,  36  in  Kansas,  70  in  Cali- 
fornia, Washington  and  Idaho,  and  23  in  the  North  Cen- 
tral States,  while  other  states  probably  had  at  least 
twenty-five  experiments,  making  in  all  about  200  cooper- 
ative distributive  stores.  A  careful  census,  however, 
might  materially  increase  this  number.  Professor  Par- 
sons estimated  that,  in  1903,  200  cooperative  stores  had  a 


COOPERATION  403 

membership  of  about  60,000,  and  were  doing  a  business  of 
about  $7,000,000  per  year.  The  principal  centers  of  the 
movement  are  in  New  England,  Kansas,  California  and 
the  North  Central  States.  In  June,  1904,  an  American 
Cooperative  Union  was  formed  at  St.  Louis  as  a  propa- 
ganda center  and  general  bureau  of  information  for  the 
entire  movement. 

( 1 ) .  The  Nciv  England  Movement :  In  New  England 
the  stores  are  nearly  all  conducted  upon  the  Eochdale 
plan,  but  most  of  them  are  small  and  isolated.  The  oldest 
is  the  little  cooperative  store  at  Silverlake,  in  the  town  of 
Kingston,  Massachusetts,  which  has  been  in  successful 
operation  since  1875.  Of  the  three  cooperative  associa- 
tions which  in  1896  were  estimated  to  include  36  per  cent, 
of  the  population  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  the  Equita- 
ble has  disappeared,  but  the  Arlington  and  the  German 
are  still  carrying  on  business,  the  latter  reporting  a  12  per 
cent,  dividend  to  members,  and  6  per  cent,  to  non-members 
during  the  second  half  of  1903. 

The  most  interesting  and  successful  of  the  New  Eng- 
land societies,  however,  is  the  Cooperative  Association  of 
America,  which  since  1901  has  conducted  the  largest  gro- 
cery business  and  general  market  in  the  combined  cities  of 
Lewiston  and  Auburn,  Maine,  employing  about  one  hun- 
dred persons  and  having  annual  sales  amounting  to  over 
$600,000.  Although  partial  use  is  made  of  the  Rochdale 
system,  the  ultimate  aim  of  this  association  resembles 
more  closely  that  of  the  older  Owenite  movement,  for  it  is 
planned  to  extend  the  business  eventually  into  a  great 


404  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

triist  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,— in  fine,  to  work  out  a 
new  and  complete  civilization,  in  which  the  laborers  shall 
receive  the  full  product  of  their  toil.  To  this  end  employ- 
ees are  admitted  as  co-worker  members,  investing  $300  in 
the  capital  and  receiving  ''from  the  profits  of  the  busi- 
ness a  sum  equal  to  10  per  cent,  upon  their  salaries." 
The  rest  of  the  profits  are  divided  among  the  "cooper- 
ators ' '  in  proportion  to  the  purchases  made  by  each.  One 
peculiar  feature  of  the  Cooperative  Association  of  Amer- 
ica is  that  90  per  cent,  of  its  capital  stock  is  owned  by  the 
the  Co-workers'  Fraternity  Compan}^  which  is  organized 
for  propaganda  purposes,  and  is  designed  to  perpetuate 
the  movement  for  all  time. 

(2).  The  Kansas  Movement:  Of  the  36  cooperative 
stores  in  Kansas  the  oldest  is  the  Johnson  County  Co- 
operative Association  at  Olathe,  which  was  started  in 
1876,  and  has  four  branches.  About  one-third  of  these 
enterprises,  including  the  Johnson  County,  are  grange 
stores,  while  the  others  are  outgrowths  of  the  Farmers' 
Alliance.  All  follow  substantially  the  Rochdale  system, 
paying,  as  a  rule,  8  per  cent,  interest  on  capital,  and 
averaging  7  to  8  per  cent,  rebate  on  purchases.  The  Kan- 
sas State  Cooperative  Union  was  organized  in  1902,  by 
the  representatives  of  some  twelve  or  fifteen  stores,  and 
has  since  held  annual  meetings. 

(3).  The  Pacific  Coast  Movement:  The  California 
Cooperative  Movement  began  at  Dos  Palos,  in  the  San 
Joaquin  Valley,  in  1896,  with  the  opening  of  a  small  store, 
which  began  with  $10  in  cash  and  $14  in  produce,  and 


COOPERATION  405 

which  was  at  first  open  only  one  evening  in  the  week. 
The  original  incentive  was  given  by  the  Farmers'  Alli- 
ance, and  the  Rochdale  system  was  early  adopted.  The 
movement  grew  steadily  and  early  in  1901  the  Rochdale 
Wholesale  Company  w^as  established  in  San  Francisco 
At  that  time  there  were  29  cooperative  distributive  socie- 
ties in  the  Pacific  Coast  States,  28  of  them  in  California 
and  one  in  Nevada.  In  May,  1904,  only  13  of  these  were 
still  in  existence ;  but  enough  new  enterprises  had  been 
started  so  that  the  list  included  70  associations,  47  in 
California,  22  in  Washington,  and  one  in  Idaho.  Of 
these,  45  were  members  of  and  the  rest  maintained  frater- 
nal relations  with  the  Rochdale  Wholesale  Company  of 
San  Francisco.  The  stores  connected  with  the  Rochdale 
Wholesale  Company  represent  a  total  membership  of 
about  5,000  persons,  and  a  business  of  nearly  $2,000,000. 
The  Pacific  Coast  Cooperative  Union  and  the  Washington 
Cooperative  Union  serve  as  propaganda  centers  for  the 
movement. 

(4).  The  Right  Relationship  League:  The  existing 
movement  in  the  North  Central  States  began  with  the 
formation  in  Chicago,  in  1898,  of  the  Cooperating  Mer- 
chants' Company,  and  the  Right  Relationship  League, 
the  one  a  Avholesale  house  organized  upon  the  cooperative 
principle  and  including  in  its  membership  a  number  of 
cooperative  retail  stores,  and  the  other  a  propaganda 
society.  The  Right  Relationship  League  has  a  distinct 
plan  of  procedure  and  of  organization,  which  it  calls 
"true  cooperation,  the  real  thing,"  and  which  includes 


406  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  purchase  of  a  membership  in  the  Cooperating  Mer- 
chants' Company.  The  scheme  is  to  form  county  organi- 
zations, which  shall  buy  out  already  existing  stores,  and 
shall  employ  as  manager  the  former  owner,  consolidating 
different  kinds  of  stores  into  departments  under  one  gen- 
eral management  and  obtaining  branches  in  other  towns 
of  the  county  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The  stores  bought 
are  to  be  paid  for  in  shares  of  the  cooperative  company, 
but  all  shares  above  $100  are  to  be  deposited  and  held  in 
trust  until  purchased  by  non-members.  In  this  way  it  is 
obvious  that  the  competition  of  private  dealers  is  reduced 
to  a  minimum,  while  it  is  believed  that  the  cooperative 
stores  formed  upon  this  plan  have,  by  reason  of  their  close 
connection  with  the  wholesale  Cooperating  Merchants' 
Company,  a  distinct  advantage  over  private  enterprises. 

The  chief  features  of  the  plan  of  organization  recom- 
mended by  the  Right  Relationship  League  are  (a)  equal 
ownership  of  stock,  each  share  to  be  placed  at  $100;  (b) 
officers  elected  by  stockholders  on  the  plan  of  "one  man, 
one  vote,"  and  no  proxies;  (c)  all  business  transacted  on 
a  cash  basis,  or  produce  or  labor;  (d)  goods  sold  at  ordi- 
nary market  prices;  (e)  net  profits  divided  annually, 
after  the  payment  of  interest  at  8  per  cent,  on  shares 
and  fixed  proportions  to  reserve,  educational  and  depre- 
ciation funds,  "among  the  members  according  to  the 
amount  of  their  individual  patronage."  Deserving  per- 
sons are  permitted  to  pay  for  stock  on  the  installment 
plan,  all  dividends  to  be  credited  until  fully  paid.     It  is 


COOPERATION  407 

designed  to  increase  the  capital  stock  from  time  to  time 
in  order  to  prevent  shares  rising  above  par. 

This  Right  Rehitionship  League  plan  has  been  adopted 
in  at  least  7  stores  in  Michigan,  7  in  Wisconsin,  3  in  Illi- 
nois, 3  in  Ohio  and  3  in  ]\Iinnesota,  making  23  in  all,  scat- 
tered through  the  smaller  agricultural  towns.  It  is 
intended,  however,  to  organize  cooperative  associations 
among  city  wage  earners  as  soon  as  possible.  The  Right 
Relationship  League,  indeed,  like  the  Cooperative  Asso- 
ciation of  America,  considers  cooperative  distribution 
merely  as  the  first  step  which  "will  lead  next,  to  coopera- 
tive production,  next  to  public  ownership  of  natural 
resources,  and  finally  to  complete  industrial  and  economic 
equality,  social  and  political  right  relationship— the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  Earth. ' ' 

3.  Development  of  Producers'  Cooperation:  Produc- 
ers' cooperation,  which  was  begun,  so  far  as  we  have 
record,  by  some  striking  tailors  of  Birmingham,  England, 
in  1777,  has  been  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  enthusiastic 
cooperators,  and  may  still  be  called  the  ideal  of  the  move- 
ment. Its  history,  however,  reflects  throughout  the 
greater  difficulties  wdth  which  it  has  had  to  contend,  and 
3omparatively  little  has  been  actually  accomplished 
towards  the  realization  of  the  earnest  hopes  of  its  advo- 
cates. Many  experiments,  however,  have  been  made  and 
a  few  successes  have  been  bought  at  the  expense  of  many 
failures,  though  recently  it  has  become  increasingly 
apparent  that  the  movement  has  made  substantial,  though 
slow  progress,  especially  in  France  and  England. 


i08  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

(a)  Growth  of  the  Movement  in  France:  The  earliest 
Buecesses  of  the  system  were  obtained  in  France  where, 
from  time  to  time,  large  sums  have  been  appropriated  by 
the  government  for  the  aid  of  workingmen's  cooperative 
associations.  Even  before  these  appropriations,  however, 
there  was  in  existence  in  Paris  a  successful  cooperative 
society  of  jewelers,  which  dated  from  1833,  eleven  years 
before  the  beginning  of  the  Rochdale  movement. 

In  1848  the  government  appropriated  three  millions  of 
francs  as  a  loan  to  cooperators,  and  also  arranged  to  give 
public  contracts  on  especially  easy  terms  to  associations 
of  workmen.  There  was  a  general  rush  to  secure  the 
money  and  the  contracts  and  over  200  societies  were 
formed,  but  the  movement  seems  to  have  been  nearly  a 
total  failure,  both  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  govern- 
ment and  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  workmen,  the 
government  losing  more  than  half  of  the  funds  appro- 
priated. There  were,  however,  individual  instances  of 
success,  and  an  impulse  seems  to  have  been  given  which 
led  later  to  the  formation  of  a  considerable  number  of 
cooperative  enterprises  which  carried  on  business  without 
the  aid  of  a  government  subsidy.  By  1852,  however,  the 
greater  number  of  these  associations  had  ceased  to  existj. 
and  only  four  survivals  could  be  found  in  1899. 

Cooperation  was  practically  submerged  in  France  from 
1851  until  1863,  when  the  beginning  of  the  second  move- 
ment was  signaled  by  the  success  of  several  workingmen's 
cooperative  banking  associations.  State  aid  had  appar- 
ently brought  disaster  before,  and  it  was  opposed  by  th« 


COOPERATION  409 

champions  of  this  movement.  By  1868  there  were  93 
productive  societies  in  France,  but,  in  the  same  year,  the 
failure  of  the  Credit  au  Travail  and  the  disappearance  ot 
the  other  banks  brought  most  of  these  associations  to  a 
sudden  end. 

In  1879-80,  amid  the  labor  difficulties  of  the  time, 
cooperation  was  again  revived,  accompanied  by  a  rever- 
sion to  the  original  demand  for  government  aid.  Public 
works  were  thenceforward  regarded  as  the  rightful 
perquisite  of  associated  labor.  Further  aid  was  fur- 
nished by  the  bequesc  of  a  million  and  a  half  francs  made 
by  M.  Benjamin  Rampal  to  the  city  of  Paris  for  the 
encouragement  of  cooperation.  In  1883  the  first  install- 
ment of  400,000  francs  of  the  bequest  was  loaned  out,  but 
this  money  seems,  on  the  whole,  to  have  met  disaster, 
though  in  individual  instances  it  doubtless  led  to  success. 
In  1885  there  were  74  cooperative  productive  societies  in 
Paris,  6  of  which  had  survived  from  the  first  movement 
and  12  from  the  second. 

In  1897  the  French  Bureau  of  Labor  made  an  investi- 
gation which  disclosed  the  existence  of  213  workingmen's 
cooperative  productive  associations  during  1895  and  1896. 
On  January  1,  1897,  184  of  these  were  known  to  be  in 
operation,  and  returns  were  received  from  165,  with  a 
total  membership  of  9,029  persons,  most  of  them  actual 
or  former  workmen  in  the  industry  represented.  Only 
about  one-half,  from  4,013  to  4,864,  of  the  members,  how- 
ever, were  at  work  for  these  associations,  while  an  even 
larger  number,   from  4,274  to   6,735,   non-members   or 


410  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

"auxiliaries"  were  employed.  During  1895,  100  of 
these  associations  were  conducted  at  a  total  profit  of 
$465,175.00,  while  65  were  conducted  at  a  loss.  The 
total  business  transacted  by  the  entire  165  during  that 
year  amounted  to  $5,769,803,  of  which  $882,652  was  for 
work  done  for  the  state,  the  departments  or  the  munici- 
palities. 

(b)  Associations  for  Contract  Labor:  On  January  1, 
1901,  there  were  reported  to  be  in  France  296  productive 
societies,  106  of  these  in  the  building  trades  alone,  and 
many  of  them  evidently  contract  associations  with  little  or 
no  capital.  The  Palais  de  1 'Economic  Sociale  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1900  was  entirely  constructed  hy  eighteen 
cooperative  societies.  These  associations  of  workingmeu 
for  contract  labor  have  had  considerable  success,  also,  in 
Italy  and  in  New  Zealand,  and  furnish  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  important  developments  of  the  modern 
cooperative  movement. 

In  many  instances  this  form  «.  f  cooperation  has  been 
directly  encouraged  and  fostered  by  government  action. 
In  France,  for  instance,  the  law  provides:  (a)  that  public 
contracts  shall  be  split  up  into  such  size  that  associations 
of  workmen  can  bid  on  them,  (b)  that  such  associations 
shall  not  be  obliged  to  deposit  any  guarantee  when  the 
contract  is  under  a  certain  amount,  (c)  that  working- 
men's  associations  shall  be  given  the  preference  when  bids 
are  equal,  and  (d)  that  payments  shall  be  made  to  such 
associations  every  fifteen  days.  The  government  printing 
oi  France  has  for  many  years  been  done  by  these  so-called 


COOPERATION  411 

"cooperative  companionships."  Frequently,  too,  trade 
anions  take  contracts  of  this  character.  In  New  Zealand 
the  system  is  provided  for  by  law,  and  the  great  bulk  of 
the  public  railway  and  road  work  is  carried  on  by  cooper- 
ative associations  of  workmen,  the  number  of  persons  con- 
stantly employed  in  this  way  averaging  in  1896  about 
2,000.  In  Italy,  from  1889  and  1894  inclusive,  con- 
tracts for  public  works  were  granted  to  157  different 
cooperative  societies  of  production  and  labor. 

(c)  Producers'  Cooperation  in  England:  In  Eng- 
land the  progress  of  producers'  cooperation  was  at  first 
slow  and  halting,  but  within  recent  years  the  movement 
has  developed  somewhat  rapidly.  The  number  of  associa- 
tions, indeed,  has  grown  from  15  in  1881  to  332  in  1902, 
and  the  number  of  shareholders  in  societies  making 
returns  from  2,560  to  62,920,  while  during  the  same 
period  the  amount  of  sales  increased  from  £98,137  to 
£2,757,414. 

The  rapid  increase  in  the  number  and  importance  of 
producers'  cooperative  associations  is  partly  due  to  the 
encouragement  and  practical  aid  received  from  the  strong 
consumers'  movement.  It  has  been  customary,  for  in- 
stance, for  the  consumers'  associations  and  wholesale 
societies,  in  bujnng  supplies,  to  favor  cooperative  asso- 
ciations of  producers. 

]\Iany  of  these  so-called  cooperative  companies,  how- 
ever, are  little  more  than  joint-stock  concerns.  The 
famous  cotton  mills  at  Oldham,  for  instance,  though  most 
of  them  were  started  by  workingmeu,  to  whom,  up  to  a 


412  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

recent  period,  a  considerable  part  of  their  capital  has 
belonged,  practice  no  form  of  profit  sharing,  and  of  late 
years  their  shares  have  been  gradually  passing  into  the 
hands  of  middle  class  capitalists.  INIoreover,  those  work- 
ingmen  who  own  shares  usually  prefer  the  stock  of  a  mill 
in  which  they  themselves  are  not  employed. 

In  1896  it  was  found  that  out  of  112  "productive'* 
societies  21,  or  nearly  one-fifth,  failed  to  give  any  share 
in  profits  to  their  employees,  and  were  thus  false  to  the 
first  principles  of  true  producers'  or  industrial  coopera- 
tion. The  remaining  91  societies  had  a  total  membership 
of  15,799  (13,515  individuals  and  2,284  societies),  and 
employed  5,633  persons.  The  methods  of  dividing  profits 
differed  widely,  but  usually  the  purchaser  received  back 
a  part  of  the  price  of  the  goods  bought  as  a  dividend, 
while  the  employees  received  either  a  fixed  proportion  of 
the  profits  or  divided  the  amount  with  the  shareholders  in 
the  proportion  which  the  share  capital  bore  to  the  total 
wage  earned. 

So  far  as  the  division  of  profits  is  concerned,  these 
societies  differ  little  from  the  profit  sharing  concerns 
previously  described.  It  is,  indeed,  the  management  of 
the  business  by  the  workingmen  which  constitutes  the 
distinctive  feature  of  producers'  cooperation,  and  in  this 
respect  considerable  progress  has  been  made  within  recent 
years,  the  proportion  of  shareholders  who  are  workmen 
and  the  proportion  of  employees  mIio  hold  shares  both 
showing  an  increase.  Self-government,  however,  is  only 
partially  carried  out  in  practice,  and  a  large  part  of  th« 


COOPERATION  413 

capital  of  these  associations  is  held  by  persons  other  than 
employees. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  associations  for  cooperative  pro- 
duction in  Great  Britain  are  meeting  with  considerable 
commercial  prosperity  and,  "although  very  far  from 
carrying  out  in  any  at  all  complete  manner  the  cardinal 
principles  of  industrial  cooperation,  which  require  that 
the  actual  workers  shall  possess  the  entire  management 
of  the  workshop,  have  in  recent  years  displayed  a  decid- 
edly increased  approximation  to  the  cooperative  ideal. '  '^ 

(d)  Producers'  Cooperation  in  Other  European  Coun- 
tries: In  the  other  countries  of  Europe  a  lesser  degree 
of  success  has  been  attained.  Nevertheless,  Germany 
claimed  in  1900,  193  so-called  productive  societies,  only 
a  very  few  of  which,  however,  were  properly  organiza- 
tions of  workmen.  In  Italy  the  socialists  have  met  with 
considerable  success  in  producers'  cooperation,  and  Hol- 
land reported,  in  1902,  58  associations  for  production  and 
55  cooperative  bakeries.  The  movement,  though  it  has 
nowhere  shown  great  strength,  seems  to  be  wide-spread. 

(e)  Producers'  Cooperation  in  the  United  States:  In 
the  United  States  true  producers'  cooperative  associa- 
tions of  workingmen  have  met  with  almost  uniform  fail- 
ure, though  experiments  have  been  made  in  a  large  variety 
of  industries  and  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  country. 
Many  of  these  have  been  under  the  auspices  of  labor 
organizations,  especially  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  in  a 
considerable  number  of  cases  they  have  been  intended 

'Schloss,  Method*  of  Industrial  Remuneration,  p.  351. 


414  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

merely  to  supply  the  members  with  work  durinj?  a  strike 
(1).  History  of  the  Movement:  The  first  attempt  in 
this  direction  seems  to  have  been  made  by  the  Boston 
Tailors'  Associative  Union,  organized  in  1849  with  $50 
shares,  and  dividing  profits  in  proportion  to  labor  per- 
formed. This  organization  carried  on  operations  for 
only  a  few  years,  but  was  the  precursor  of  a  considerable 
number  of  cooperative  experiments  in  Massachusetts, — 
especially  in  the  shoe,  foundry  and  furniture  business, — 
which  flourished  during  the  '70s  and  '80s.  In  each  year 
from  1875  to  1885,  indeed,  from  7  to  10  such  cooperative 
manufacturing  enterprises  were  in  existence  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  average  capital  stock  of  the  10  in  operation 
in  1884  being  $16,690.00.  In  many  cases,  however,  com- 
panies were  called  cooperative  which  never  gave  dividends 
to  labor,  but  divided  profits  solelj^  on  the  basis  of  shares, 
these  shares  being  owned  usually  by  the  workmen,  though 
often  non-shareholders,  also,  were  employed.  Such  com- 
panies are  examples  neither  of  true  profit  sharing  nor  of 
true  cooperation.  All  of  these  enterprises,  moreover, 
either  failed  or  passed  into  private  hands. 

During  the  supremacy  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  from 
1884  to  1888,  producers'  cooperative  establishments  flour- 
ished sporadically  in  different  parts  of  the  coimtry,  and 
even  within  recent  years  the  Knights  have  made  some 
efforts  to  establish  cooperative  enterprises.  In  1899,  for 
instance,  attention  was  called  in  the  General  Assembly 
"to  the  window-glass  factories  owned  and  operated  by 
f,he  members  of  Local  Assembly  300,  window-glass  work. 


COOPERATION  415 

ers,  on  the  cooperative  plan,  as  it  was  said,  'although  in  a 
sense  they  are  stock  companies.'  "^  In  general,  how- 
ever, cooperative  production,  except  as  a  temporary 
resource  when  men  are  on  strike,  has  met  with  little  suc- 
cess as  carried  on  by  labor  organizations.  The  principal 
causes  of  faiure  seem  to  have  been  disagreements  of 
various  kinds  and  the  lack  of  education  and  of  businesa 
qualifications  in  the  members. 

(2).  The  Minneapolis  Coopers:  The  oldest  existing 
cooperative  productive  establishments  are,  doubtless,  the 
famous  cooper  shops  of  Minneapolis.  This  movement 
began  in  1868,  and  was  the  outgrowth  of  a  desire  for 
greater  certainty  and  more  regularity  of  employment,  as 
well  as  for  higher  wages.  The  first  experiment  failed, 
owing  to  the  lack  of  demand  for  the  product,  and  the 
second  on  account  of  the  treachery  of  the  treasurer.  In 
1874,  however,  the  Cooperative  Barrel  Manufacturing 
Company  was  started,  and  this  association  is  still  success- 
fully carrying  on  business.  Other  cooperative  companies 
were  organized  from  time  to  time  and  in  1886  there  were 
eight  in  Minneapolis.  By  1896,  however,  four  of  these 
had  disappeared,  and  in  January,  1904,  only  three 
remained,— the  Cooperative  Barrel  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany previously  mentioned,  the  North  Star  Barrel 
Company,  started  in  1877,  and  the  Hennepin  County 
Barrel  Company,  started  in  1880,  and  now  doing  an 
annual  business  of  $400,000.  In  the  latter  company  50 
per  cent,  of  the  employees  are  stockholders.     All  three 

^Industrial  Commission,  XVII,  p.  22. 


416  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

concerns  firmly  maintain  the  principle  that  each  membef 
must  hold  the  same  amount  of  stock,  but  profits  are 
divided  on  shares,  and  wages  are  the  same  for  similar 
work  for  both  stockholders  and  non-stockholders. 

There  has  been,  however,  some  trouble  between  the 
codperators  and  the  unions  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
former,  being  capitalists,  will  not  strike,  and  that  they 
have  such  a  large  part  of  the  business  that  the  journey- 
men in  private  shops  can  not  strike.  In  1899,  at  the  con- 
vention of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  a  protest 
was  received  from  the  local  union  of  machine  coopers  in 
Minneapolis,  "declaring  that  to  place  them  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Coopers'  Union  would  be  to  place 
them  at  the  mercy  of  their  employers.  The  members  of 
the  Coopers*  Union,  according  to  the  statement,  were 
almost  all  stockholders  in  cooperage  plants  and  machine 
coopers  were  employed  by  them.  If  the  machine  coopers 
M^ere  compelled  to  join  the  Coopers'  Union  these  union 
employers  would  be  entitled  to  free  admission  to  their 
meetings.  Moreover,  since  the  machine  coopers  were  in 
the  minority,  they  would  be  controlled  by  their  employers 
even  in  the  union  itself.  *  *  *  The  complainants  are  now 
organized  within  the  international  body,  but  as  a  separate 
local.  "^ 

A  somewhat  similar  complaint  is  made  of  the  few  small 
cooperative  coal  mines  in  Illinois,  Avhich  are  said  by  the 
State  Mine  Inspector  to  have  a  bad  effect  on  wages  in 
their  neighborhood  by  their  readiness  to  sell  coal  at  any 

*  Industrial  Commission,  XVII.  n.  209. 


COOPERATION  4I7 

price  when  trade  is  dull.  In  the  cigar  making  trade, 
moreover,  it  is  said  that  the  tendency  of  successful  co- 
operators  is  to  become  small  masters,  and  work  against 
the  interests  of  the  union. 

(3).  Other  Existing  Experiments:  Outside  of  the 
communistic  settlements,  which  have  usually  carried  on 
some  form  of  cooperative  production,  there  have  been  in 
the  United  States  during  the  past  forty  years  about  200 
experiments  in  producers'  cooperation,  but  nearly  all  of 
these  have  disappeared  or  become  joint-stock  companies, 
and  at  present  there  are  probably  not  more  than  50 
establishments  which  can  in  any  sense  be  called  cooper- 
ative. The  Zion's  Cooperative  Mercantile  Institution,  it 
is  true,  has  several  large  productive  departments  similar 
to  those  of  the  English  Wholesale  Society,  but  these  are 
conducted  in  the  interests  of  consumers  and  not  of  pro- 
ducers. It  is  impossible  to  give  an  even  approximately 
accurate  list  of  the  few  obscure  and  isolated  experiments 
which  are  now  being  carried  on,  and  such  a  list,  if  given, 
would  be  of  little  value  for,  though  correct  to-day,  it 
would  need  to  be  revised  to-morrow. 

Cooperative  manufacturing  establishments,  however, 
are  known  to  be  operated  by  labor  unions  in  the  iron, 
glass,  garment,  cigar  making  and  other  trades,  and  the 
United  Order  of  Box  Workers  and  Sawyers  of  America 
have  two  cooperative  factories  in  Chicago  and  one  in 
Milwaukee.  Woodworkers,  also,  have  attained  some  suc- 
cess in  producers'  cooperation  in  St.  Louis,  while  there 
27 


418  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

are,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  cooperative  sawmills, 
gristmills,  wood  yards,  starch  factories,  canning-  factories 
and  mines.  New  York  City  is  said  to  have  a  cooperative 
restaurant,  and  in  Los  Angeles,  California,  there  is  a 
successful  cooperative  laundry,  which  was  started  in  1901 
by  half  a  dozen  striking  laundry  girls.  Still  another 
interesting  organization  is  the  Workers'  Cooperative 
Association  of  Boston,  which  was  formed  in  1900  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Building  Trades  Union,  for  the  purpose  of 
erecting,  during  unemployed  time,  a  labor  temple. 

One  of  the  most  important  existing  experiments,  how- 
ever, is  that  which  was  inaugurated  in  1902  in  the  metal 
polishing  and  plating  department  of  the  Eastman  Kodak 
Works  at  Rochester,  New  York.  Cooperation  in  this  case 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  workmen  employed  in  the 
department  joined  the  union,  and  made  certain  demands 
upon  the  company,  upon  which  the  manager  proposed 
that  they  start  a  cooperative  association,  and  promised  to 
send  them  all  his  work.  The  offer  was  accepted,  and  a 
cooperative  society  was  organized  with  34  members,  each 
of  whom  subscribed  for  $1,000  worth  of  stock.  It  is 
provided,  however,  that  any  stockholder  who  desires  to 
withdraw  must  offer  his  interest  first  to  the  company. 
There  are  nine  directors  in  whom  is  vested  the  control  of 
the  business,  and  a  shop  committee  of  three  receives  all 
complaints.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year  it  was  found 
that  the  cooperators  were  receiving  about  10  per  cent, 
higher  wages  than  other  workmen  of  their  kind  in  the 


COOPERATION  419 

city,  but  meanwhile,  the  number  of  stockholders  had 
been  reduced  to  21.^ 

4.  The  Success  and  Failure  of  Cooperation:  Though 
the  movement  is  backward  in  this  country  and  may  never 
become  here  as  important  as  in  Europe,  cooperation  un- 
doubtedly stands  in  the  front  rank  of  remedies  for  the 
€vils  of  the  modern  labor  situation.  It  is  a  serious  mistake, 
however,  to  assume  that,  because  cooperative  enterprises 
have  shown  themselves  capable  of  more  or  less  commercial 
success,  the  principle  can  eventually  be  expanded  over  an 
industrial  Utopia.  ^\"hatever  benefits  can  be  derived  by 
the  laboring  classes  should  be  appreciated,  and  the  move- 
ment ought  to  be  encouraged,  but,  at  the  same  time,  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  practical  ideals  of  the  two 
varieties  of  cooperation  are,  from  the  economic  point  of 
view,  distinctly  antagonistic,  and  that  there  are  certain 
fundamental  objections  to  the  complete  application  of 
either  principle. 

(a)  Commercial  Status  of  the  Cooperative  Movement: 
In  measuring  the  possibilities  of  either  form  of  coopera- 

'  After  this  book  had  gone  to  press  it  was  learned  that  this  example, 
although  still  valuable  for  illustrative  purposes,  hrid  already  practically 
ceased  to  represent  true  cooperation.  In  November,  1904,  the  number  of 
stockholders  had  been  reduced  to  five,  each  holding  an  equal  share,  while 
about  twenty-five  men,  some  of  them  formerly  fellow  cooperators,  were 
employed.  Moreover,  an  open  shop  had  been  established,  and  the  de- 
mands of  the  local  union  were  declared  too  extreme  to  be  considered. 
This  experiment,  indeed,  is  at  the  present  writing  a  striking  illustration 
of  the  degeneration  of  a  co<iperative  productive  enterprise  into  a  joint 
stock  company,  referred  to  in  the  next  section  as  one  of  the  dangers  of 
commercially  successful  cooperative  production.  The  rapidity,  too,  with 
which  the  Union  Polishing  and  Plating  Company  has  run  the  entire  gamut 
from  radical  trades  unionism  and  cooperation  to  the  open  shop  policy  and 
"  joint-stockism"  illustrates  clearly  the  fugitive  character  of  the  mov& 
ment. 


420  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

tion  it  is  necessary  to  determine,  first,  its  commercial 
status,  and  second,  its  practical  advantages. 

(1).  Causes  of  the  Success  of  Consumers'  Cooperation: 
Consumers'  cooperation,  as  a  commercial  system,  owes  its 
success  to  its  economic  superiority  over  competitive  dis- 
tribution, with  its  unnecessary  multiplication  of  small 
traders,  its  wasteful  methods  of  advertising  and  display- 
ing goods,  its  petty  deceptions,  and  its  ' '  habitual  robbery 
of  the  punctual  creditor  to  cover  bad  debts."  In  Eng- 
land, for  instance,  the  movement  is  founded  upon  well 
recognized  business  principles  and  is  admirably  adapted, 
not  only  to  fulfill  the  functions  of  a  consumers '  trust,  but 
to  hold  together  in  loyal  devotion  to  a  common  material  in- 
terest an  enormous  number  of  individual  members.  Not 
only,  however,  does  cooperation  insure  a  comparatively 
permanent  and  loyal  set  of  customers,  but  the  members  of 
stores  can  cheerfully  impose  upon  themselves  rules  which 
they  would  not  tolerate  in  a  privately  owned  establish- 
ment, and  "by  obedience  to  these  rules  they  can  secure 
great  gain  in  economy  of  production,  without  diminishing 
the  utility  of  the  goods  and  services  received.  By  their 
experience  in  adopting  and  enforcing  these  rules,  they  can 
educate  themselves  to  a  far  higher  degree  of  economic 
forethought  than  they  would  otherwise  be  likely  to  pos- 
sess, and  can  obtain  a  decided  increase  of  comfort,  both  for 
themselves  and  for  the  community  as  a  whole. '  '^ 

Other  advantages  of  cooperative  stores  are  the  saving  of 
many  advertising  expenses,  and  the  more  certain  knowl- 

*  Hadley,  Economics,  p.  382. 


COOPERATION  421 

edge  of  the  customers '  needs,  by  means  of  which  they  are 
enabled  to  avoid  the  waste  and  deterioration  resulting 
from  long  storage.  Moreover,  the  customary  freedom  of 
cooperative  stores,  which  are  established,  not  for  private 
profit,  but  for  the  good  of  the  customers,  from  the  adul- 
teration of  articles  and  the  frauds  in  weight  and  measure 
common  in  ordinary  retail  establishments,  serves,  not  only 
to  attract  trade,  but  to  enforce  upon  private  merchants 
greater  care  as  to  the  quality  of  their  goods.  While  the 
methods  of  private  trade  have,  in  their  turn,  certain  ad- 
vantages, it  is  obvious  that  cooperative  distribution  is  no 
weak  competitor.  In  England  it  has  transformed  ' '  retail 
trading  from  a  petty  enterprise  into  a  great  industry. ' ' 

The  movement  in  England,  however,  has  had  special  ad- 
vantages due  to  the  topography  of  the  country,  and  in  the 
United  States  it  would  be  far  more  difficult  to  centralize 
such  a  business  and  to  obtain  sufficient  capital  to  compete 
successfully  with  the  large  private  corporations  which  are 
already  in  the  field.  The  English  movement,  moreover, 
was  itself  a  plain  result  of  the  general  tendency  towards 
the  concentration  of  business,  while  in  the  United  States 
the  time  for  such  a  growth  from  small  beginnings  has 
passed,  and  any  movement  now  undertaken  must  be  capa- 
ble, in  the  first  instance,  of  successful  competition  with  the 
large  department  stores  and  mail  order  houses  of  the 
cities.  Even  in  small  towns  and  country  districts  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  for  cooperative  stores  to  survive  with- 
out the  backing  of  a  strong  wholesale  house.  For  this 
reason,  the  Rochdale  Wholesale  Company  of  San  Fran- 


422  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Cisco  is  probably  the  most  important  single  factor  in  the 
American  movement,  while  the  Cooperating  Merchants' 
Company  of  Chicago,  though  its  membership  is  at  present 
very  largely  composed  of  private  traders,  shows  more 
significant  promise  for  the  future  than  apparent  accom- 
plishment. 

The  lack  of  success  of  consumers'  cooperation  in  the 
United  States  is  partly  due,  however,  to  other  economic 
causes,  such  as  the  greater  mobility  of  the  American  work- 
man, and  especially  the  individualistic  movement  which 
has  settled  the  west.  Moreover,  the  higher  and  more  elas- 
tic wages  of  this  country  have  rendered  combinations  for 
the  effecting  of  small  economies  less  needful  and,  at  the 
same  time,  have  made  the  energies  of  the  individual  work- 
men too  valuable  to  be  frittered  away  in  the  minute  per- 
sonal supervision  which  must  be  given  by  every  member  if 
a  cooperative  business  is  to  be  successful.  In  fact,  the 
comparative  advantages  of  consumers'  cooperation  have 
heretofore  been  less  in  this  country  than  in  Europe,  and 
the  system  has,  eonsequently,  met  with  only  a  minimum 
degree  of  success. 

(2).  Practical  Difficulties  and  Limitations  of  Produ- 
cers' Cooperation:  The  superior  advantages  claimed  for 
producers'  over  consumers'  cooperation  are  accompanied 
by  a  corresponding  number  of  practical  difficulties,  which 
render  commercial  success  far  less  frequently  attainable. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  difficulty  of  securing  an  ef- 
ficient manager  with  the  ability  to  organize  and  adminis- 
ter the  business  in  such  a  way  that  it  can  compete  success- 


COOPERATION  423 

fiill}^  with  pi'ivate  industry.  AVorkmen  seldom  realize  the 
market  value  of  the  services  of  a  responsible  and  efficient 
manager,  and  are  unwilling  to  pay  the  necessary  salary. 
Even  when  such  ability  is  secured,  moreover,  the  fact  that 
the  manager  is  dependent  for  his  election  upon  the  votes 
of  the  workmen  makes  it  exceedingly  difficult  for  him  to 
exercise  that  administrative  discipline  which  is  essential 
to  the  economical  conduct  of  any  enterprise. 

Want  of  capital  and  want  of  custom  arei  also  prolific 
causes  of  failure  for  producers'  cooperative  enterprises, 
while  there  is  endless  trouble  with  incompetent  and  shift- 
less members.  Losses  are  not  gracefully  or  easily  borne, 
and  the  division  of  profits  sometimes  causes  serious  dis- 
agreements. Even  when  the  enterprise  is  successful  so 
far  as  production  is  concerned,  there  are  further  risks  in 
disposing  of  the  product,  and  the  laborer  is  still  exploited, 
not  only  as  a  consumer,  but  also  in  transportation  and 
marketing.  All  these  difficulties,  moreover,  are  enhanced 
by  the  necessity  of  competing  with  enterprises  in  which 
there  is  an  elastic  possibility  of  reducing  wages  and  profits 
without  serious  inconvenience. 

In  fine,  this  species  of  cooperation  is  likely  to  succeed 
only  among  the  most  intelligent  and  the  best  trained  of 
the  working  class,— men  who,  a  generation  ago,  would 
have  been  independent  employers  on  a  small  scale,  but 
who  to-day,  owing  to  the  constantly  increasing  necessity 
for  large  amounts  of  capital  in  business  enterprises,  must 
combine  their  limited  means  in  order  to  compete.  It  has 
even  been  said  that  the  only  perfectly  reliable  means  of 


424  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

success  yet  discovered  for  productive  enterprises,  when 
unconnected  with  cooperative  distribution,  is  to  give  up 
cooperation  itself  and  become  mere  joint-stock  companies 
coatrolled  by  shareholders. 

Indeed,  if  a  cooperative  business  is  not  successful  it 
simply  dies,  but  if  it  is  successful  it  is  immediately  and 
continually  confronted  with  the  danger  of  degenerating 
into  "joint-stockism. "  It  seems  hard  to  those  who  have 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  struggle,  that  strangers  should 
come  in  and  reap  the  benefit  and,  accordingly,  the  tempta- 
tion is  great  to  close  the  ranks  of  profit  sharers  to  new 
comers.  Exclusiveness  is  developed  and  the  more  efficient 
and  prosperous  members  obtain  before  long  a  controlling 
influence.  Thus  cooperation  dies  and  "  joint-stockism'' 
reigns  supreme. 

Nevertheless,  though  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  pro- 
ducers '  cooperation  are  great,  a  fair  degree  of  success  has 
already  been  attained  along  certain  lines,  and  the  system 
is  probably  destined  to  further  development  in  the  future. 
The  possible  field,  however,  is  somewhat  narrowly  limited. 
As  President  Walker  has  said  :  ' '  Where  ( 1 )  a  branch 
of  industry  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  can  best  be  carried 
on  by  a  small  group  of  workmen  ;  where  (2)  the  workmen 
so  engaged  are  substantially  on  a  level  as  regards  strengtli 
and  skill;  where  (3)  the  initial  expenditure  for  tools  and 
materials  is  small,  and,  especially,  where  (4)  the  goods 
are  to  be  produced  mainly  or  wholly  for  the  local  market, 
the  difficulties  of  the  cooperative  system  sink  to  a  mini- 
mum and  the  advantages  rise  to  a  maximum.     It  is  in 


COOPERATION  425 

such  branches  of  industry,  therefore,  that  the  experiment 
of  productive  cooperation  should  first  be  tried.  Success 
can  be  achieved  here,  if  anywhere.  Should  success  be 
here  achieved,  advantage  may  be  taken  of  the  experience 
thus  accumulated  and  of  the  training  thus  acquired,  to 
undertake  progressively  larger  enterprises.  On  the  other 
hand,  should  the  difficulties  of  productive  cooperation  pre- 
vent a  decided  success  within  the  nearer  and  easier 
field,  it  would  be  worse  than  futile  to  attempt  to  inaugu- 
rate that  system  on  a  more  ambitious  scale. '  '^ 

(b).  Labor  Copartnership:  Within  recent  years  there 
has  appeared  in  Great  Britain  a  new  ideal  of  cooperation 
which,  it  is  claimed  by  its  advocates,  avoids  the  difficulties 
while  gradually  bringing  the  advantages  of  producers'  co- 
operation and  which,  at  the  same  time,  utilizes  the  eco- 
nomic strength  of  the  distributive  movement.  The  prin- 
ciples of  this  school  of  cooperators  are  stated  in  their 
monthly  organ.  Labor  Copartnership,  as  follows:  "We 
advocate  the  copartnership,  that  is  the  equal  partnership, 
of  labor  with  capital,  the  system  under  which,  in  the  first 
place,  a  substantial  and  known  share  of  the  profit  of  a 
business  belongs  to  the  workers  in  it,  not  by  right  of  any 
shares  they  may  hold,  or  any  other  title,  but  simply  by 
right  of  the  labor  they  have  contributed  to  make  the 
profit ;  and  in  the  second  place,  every  worker  is  at  liberty 
to  invest  his  profit,  or  any  other  savings,  in  shares  of  the 
society  or  company,  and  so  become  a  member  entitled  to 
vote  on  the  affairs  of  the  body  which  employs  him. ' '    This 

^  Walker,  Political  Economy,  p.  349. 


426  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

definition  of  labor  copartnership,  it  should  be  noted,  is 
wide  enough  to  include  a  great  many  profit  sharing,  as 
well  as  cooperative  establishments. 

The  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  this  form  of 
profit  sharing  have  already  been  discussed.  There  are, 
however,  certain  objections  to  be  made  to  the  labor  co- 
partnership plan  as  applied  to  the  cooperative  movement. 
In  the  first  place,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether,  in 
spite  of  the  recent  comparative  success  of  these  establish- 
ments, cooperative  enterprises  furnish  a  safe  investment 
for  the  hard  earned  savings  of  workingmen.  Of  even 
more  serious  importance  is  the  danger  that,  in  a  copart- 
nership plan  in  which  the  employees  hold  anything  like  a 
conti-olling  interest,  they  may,  in  order  to  save  the  con- 
cern from  failure,  be  obliged  to  reduce  wages,  ' '  so  entail- 
ing consequences  most  seriously  prejudicial  not  alone  to 
themselves  but  also  to  workmen  in  the  trade  generalh^"^ 
Nevertheless,  the  development  of  industrial  coopera- 
tion along  copartnership  lines  is  at  present  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  phase  of  the  cooperative  move- 
ment, and  is  full  of  promise  of  future  betterment. 

(c)  Cooperation  as  a  Solution  of  the  Labor  Problem: 
No  extravagant  hopes,  however,  should  be  placed  upon  the 
principle  of  cooperation  as  a  solution  of  the  labor  prob- 
lem, for  its  advantages  will  always  be  limited  by  the  im- 
possibility of  reconciling  the  opposite  aims  of  the  two 
varieties  of  association.  Up  to  the  present  time,  moreover, 
the  greatest  actual   accomplishment  of  cooperation  has 

'  Schloss,  Meihods  of  fiidustrial  Ixonuncration,  p.  3G3. 


COOPERATION  427 

been  the  substitution  for  one  profit  maker  of  many  profit 
makers,  which,  as  Mrs.  Webb  says,  ' '  is  not  a  step  forward 
in  the  moralization  of  trade."  Indeed,  "what  the  co- 
operative movement  has  done  is,  in  the  main,  not  to  make 
it  possible  for  workmen  to  be  their  own  emplo.yers,  but  to 
enable  a  large  number  of  workingmen  to  become  the  em- 
ployers of  a  small  number  of  workingmen. '  '^ 

(1).  Weakness  of  Consumers'  Cooperation:  Even 
when  most  successful,  consumers'  cooperation  has  done 
little,  and  is  capable  of  doing  little,  towards  a  solution  of 
the  problem  of  capital  and  labor.  A  cooperative  store 
enables  its  members  to  use  their  wages  to  better  advan- 
tage, but  it  is  utterly  incapable  of  raising  wages,  or  of  im- 
proving conditions  of  employment.  In  the  settlement  of 
all  questions  concerning  wages,  hours  or  labor  conditions, 
cooperative  consumers  must  rely  upon  trade  unions. 
Successful  consumers '  cooperation  does,  it  is  true,  provide 
the  basis  of  capital  and  market  for  the  safe  establishment 
of  productive  departments.  When  such  enterprises  are 
undertaken,  however,  it  is  in  the  interests  of  the  consu- 
mers and  not  of  the  producers,  and  they  merely  serve  to 
bring  out  clearly  the  essential  antagonism  between  con- 
sumers' cooperation,  which  profits  by  low  wages,  and  pro- 
ducers' cooperation,  which  profits  by  high  wages.  The 
antithesis  between  the  interests  of  the  individual  as  con- 
sumer and  as  producer  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  prob- 
lems of  a  competitive  order,  and  in  it  lies  the  greatest 
weakness  of  capitalistic  cooperation. 

^  Schloss,  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration,  p.  8. 


428  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Moreover,  consumers'  cooperation  is  not  only  incapable 
of  raising  wages,  but  its  advantages  may  be  used  as  an  ex- 
cuse to  lower  them.  Thus  employers  in  Great  Britain 
have  again  and  again  ' '  pleaded  before  arbitration  boards 
and  argued  in  conferences  with  the  men  that  the  cheaper 
cost  of  living  brought  about  by  the  cooperative  system  is  a 
sufficient  reason  for  lowering  wages."  As  has  been  well 
said :  "  It  is  the  trade  union,  and  trade  union  alone, 
that  enables  the  workers  to  retain  the  dividend,  or  dis- 
count, of  the  '  Coop,  shop ',  or  to  secure  the  full  advantages 
of  the  lowered  price  and  improved  quality  of  the  com- 
modities."^ Obviously,  if  the  cooperative  store  can  not 
prevent  wages  from  falling  in  proportion  as  the  cost  of 
living  falls,  this  fact  constitutes  a  weighty  objection  to 
such  stores  wherever  trade  unionism  is  weak. 

It  is  also  obvious  that,  as  the  dividends  under  this  form 
of  cooperation  are  distributed  in  proportion  to  purchases, 
the  chief  advantage  goes  to  the  largest  consumers,— to  the 
comparatively  prosperous,  and  not  to  those  who  are  in 
greatest  need  of  the  benefits  to  be  derived.  Consumers' 
cooperation,  consequently,  exerts  no  equalizing  force 
whatever,  but  effects  a  saving  for  each  member  in  propor- 
tion, practically,  to  income,  and  leaves  all  inequalities  of 
wealth  as  between  members  precisely  as  it  found  them 
Some  advantage,  it  is  true,  is  gained  over  outsiders,  but 
usually  where  working  class  cooperation  is  successful, 
middle  class  cooperation  is  also  successful,  and  in  substan- 
tially the  same  degree. 

*  Potter.  The  Cooperative  Movement  in  Oreat  Britaiti,  p.  196. 


COOPERATION  429 

It  is  claimed,  moreover,  that  the  cooperative  stores  of 
Great  Britain  do  not  now,  in  the  height  of  their  com- 
mercial success,  reach  the  very  class  of  people  among 
whom  they  originated.  In  their  prosperity,  indeed,  they 
have  shaken  off  the  poorer,  and  attached  to  themselves 
the  more  well-to-do  of  the  laboring  population,  and  have 
served,  not  as  a  lever  to  raise  the  working  class  as  a 
whole,  but  as  a  bridge  over  which  picked  members  of  the 
working  class  may  pass  into  the  middle  class.  The  growth 
of  the  English  Wholesale  Society,  too,  has  brought  out 
clearly  one  of  the  greatest  dangers  of  the  movement,  the 
development  of  "  a  reign  of  autocracy  under  the  guise  of 
democracy," — "the  disease  of  all  monopolies  and  central- 
ized bodies. ' '  Competition,  moreover,  has  sprung  up  be- 
tween cooperative  societies.  In  Rochdale,  for  instance,  a 
new  society  rivals  the  Equitable  Pioneers,  "and  the  war 
between  the  two  cooperative  stores  is  much  more  intense 
than  between  the  cooperators  and  the  competitive 
traders. '  '* 

While  consumers'  cooperation  is,  then,  a  useful  and 
cheap  method  of  distribution,  and  is  capable,  if  rightly 
applied,  of  providing  a  substantial  benefit  to  large  num- 
bers of  the  working  class,  the  notion  that  it  can  solve  the 
labor  problem  is  utterly  chimerical.  The  leaders  of  the 
movement,  indeed,  have  never  rested  satisfied  with  the 
somewhat  disappointing  results  of  buying  and  selling 
commodities  in  stores,  but  have  looked  inevitably  to  the 

'Parsons,  "The  Ulse  and  Progress  of  Cooperation  in  Europe,"  Arena 
Vol  30,  p.  S2. 


430  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

less  practical  but  more  ambitious  scheme  of  producers'  co« 
operation  as  the  ultimate  ideal. 

(2).  ^Yeakness  of  Producers'  Cooperation:  "While, 
however,  consumers'  associations  are  practically  power- 
less to  improve  labor  conditions,  including  wages  and 
hcurs  and,  in  general,  the  whole  field  of  trade  union  ac- 
tivity, producers^  associations  are  powerless  to  remove  the 
evils  of  competition.  They  are,  indeed,  especially  when 
they  are  possessed  of  only  a  limited  capital  and  have  a 
membership  absolutely  dependent  upon  steady  work  for 
daily  bread,  extremely  apt  to  underbid  competitors  in 
order  to  obtain  work.  Thus  prices  are  lowered  and  a  ruin- 
ous competition  sets  in. 

Moreover,  associations  of  producers  are  essentially  anti- 
democratic in  structure,  and  are,  in  essence,  merely  profit 
seeking  societies.  Their  interests  are  directly  opposed  to 
the  interests  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  and  if  they 
once  became  general,  society  would  either  be  divided  into 
small,  self-governing  circles  of  producers  engaging  in  bit- 
ter competition  within  industries,  or  would  be  split  into 
a  series  of  monopolies,  each  controHing  a  certain  industry, 
and  each  representing  to  all  the  others  the  antagonistic 
interests  of  the  producer  as  opposed  to  the  consumer. 
The  American  Society  of  Equity,  for  instance,  states 
that  the  success  of  its  plan,  which  M^ill  be  assured  when 
it  has  a  million  members,  will  mean  the  control  of  the 
markets  of  the  world  by  the  farmers;  "and  they  can  be 
trusted  to  feed  the  world  at  fair  prices.  But  should  the 
fair  prices  be  refused  they  can  starve  the  world  by  with- 


COOPERATION  431 

holding  their  produce.'    The  farmers  would  themselves, 
of  course,  determine  what  should  be  "fair  prices." 

The  danger  from  cooperative  monopoly  is,  however,  re- 
mote; and,  at  present,  any  progress  in  the  direction  of 
true  workingmen  's  cooperation,  either  consumers '  or  pro- 
ducers',  is  to  be  welcomed.  Though  cooperation  in  this 
country  has  been  retarded  by  the  great  number  of  fail 
ures,  due  largely  to  premature  and  ill-considered  efforts, 
it  is  highly  probable  that  the  movement  is  destined  to  at- 
tain greater  prominence  than  ever  before  in  the  near 
future.  As  in  England,  however,  the  benefits  to  be  de- 
rived are  limited  by  the  possibilities  of  the  two  varieties 
of  cooperation,  the  one  which  gives  the  profits  to  the  pur- 
chaser, but  can  not  raise  wages,  and  the  other  which  gives 
the  profits  to  the  producer,  but  can  not  prevent  the  action 
of  a  cut-throat  competition. 

References  :  One  of  the  most  valuable  general  works  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  cooperation  is  The  Cooperative  Movement  in  Great  Britain,  by 
Beatrice  Potter,  which  was  published  in  1801.  Though  older,  The  His- 
tory of  Cooperation  in  England,  by  George  Jacob  Holyoake,  is  still  in- 
teresting reading,  while  Mr.  Holyoalie's  other  works  upon  the  subject 
may  profitably  be  used  for  more  minute  study.  The  only  authoritative 
work  covering  the  general  subject  of  cooperation  in  the  United  States 
is  the  History  of  Cooperation  in  the  United  States,  a  series  of  mono- 
graphs by  Johns  Hopkins  students,  published  in  188S,  as  one  volume  of 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political  Sci- 
ence. The  reader  is  also  referred  to  Oetting  a  Lirin<i.  by  George  L. 
Bolen,  "Cooperative  Industry."  pp.  67-96  ;  and  to  Professor  Frank  Par- 
sons' two  articles  on  "The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Cooperation  in  Eu- 
rope," and  "Cooperative  Undertakings  in  Europe  and  America,"  pub- 
lished in  the  Arena,  Vol.  30,  pp.  27-36  and  pp.  159-167. 

SCPPLEMENTARY   READINGS  ! 

1.     Con.siimers'  Cooperation  : 

(a)  Bemis.  "Cooperative  Distribution,"  D'uUetin  of  the  (United 

States)  Department  of  Labor,  No.  6,  pp.  610-644, 

(b)  'bright,   A    Manual  of  Distrlhutive    Cooperation . 

(c)  Pizzamiglio,  Distributing   Cooperative   Societies. 


432  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

2.  Producers'   Cooperation  : 

(a)  Jones,    Vooptraiivc    Prnducfton. 

(b)  Gide,    "Productive    Cooperation      in     France,"     Quartcrlg 

Journal  of  Economics,  Vol.  14,  pp.  30-66. 

3.  Labor  Copartnership : 

(a)    Lloyd,  Labor  Copartnership. 

4.  Cooperation  and  Trade  T^nionlsm : 

(a)   Webb,  "The  Relationship  Between    Cooperation  and  Trade 
Unionism,"  Problems  of  Modern  Industry,  pp.  192-208 
(1902  ed.). 
6.     Economic   Basis  of    Cooperation  : 

(a)  Hadley,  Economics,  pp.  370-384. 

(b)  Walker,  Political  Emnomij,  pp.  341-351. 
ft     Recent  Phases  of  Cooperation  in  England  : 

(O)   Wolff,    "Progress    and    Deterioration    in    the    Cooperatlvt 
Mowement,"  Economic  BeAew,  Vol.  II,  pp.  445-4(4. 


CHAPTER  XI 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 


The  need  of  an  adequate  system  of  trade  education  haa 
been  brought  to  the  front  by  the  gradual  decay  of  the  ap- 
prenticeship system,  by  the  increasing  importance  of 
manufacturing  industry  as  compared  with  agriculture, 
and  by  the  rapid  advance  made  in  world  commerce  by 
those  nations  that  have  provided  the  best  opportunities 
for  the  acquisition  of  skill  and  efficiency  in  manual  occu- 
pations. 

The  importance  of  industrial  education  can  not  be  over- 
estimated. From  the  employers'  point  of  view  efficient 
workmen,  foremen  and  superintendents  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  successful  competition  in  the  world's  mar- 
kets. It  is  evident  to  all  farsighted  persons  that  the  in- 
creased progress  and  productivity  of  industry  are,  now  as 
always,  dependent  upon  four  factors,  (a)  the  manual  skill 
and  dexterity  of  the  workmen,  (b)  the  taste  and  mental 
resourcefulness  of  the  workmen,  (c)  the  improved  or- 
ganization of  industry,  including  the  division  of  labor, 
and  (d)  the  invention  of  labor  saving  devices.  Though 
these  factors  may  change  from  time  to  time  in  relative 
value  and  may  vary  from  industry  to  industry,  they  are 
28  433 


434  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

all,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  dependent  upon  the  tech- 
nical education  of  the  working  force. 

From  the  laborers'  point  of  view  trade  education  is 
3ven  more  vital.  Increased  productivity  brings  to  the 
workmen,  if  not  a  larger  share,  at  least  a  larger  absolute 
amount  of  the  total  product  of  industry.  Other  things 
being  equal,  when  greater  skill  and  improved  methods  in- 
crease the  product,  the  workers  may  demand  higher  wages 
and  shorter  hours  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  are  bene- 
fited as  consumers  by  lower  prices.  Thus  gradually  the 
standard  of  life  tends  to  rise  with  an  increase  in  the  pro- 
ductivity of  industry. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  result  of  thorough  training 
to  the  skilled  workmen,  however,  is  the  greater  power  and 
effectiveness  of  organization,  though  in  this  very  fact  is 
found  the  root  of  the  most  serious  objection  ever  made  to 
the  wide  diffusion  of  trade  education.  It  is  maintained 
that,  in  certain  industries,  the  strength  of  the  union  lies 
in  the  comparative  scarcity  of  the  skill  which  its  members 
possess,  and  in  the  union  monopoly  of  that  skill.  If  ef- 
ficient technical  education  were  more  general,  competi- 
tion, it  is  said,  would  be  greater,  the  trade  could  not  be  so 
thoroughly  organized,  and  the  union  would  be  less  able  to 
enforce  a  standard  of  hours  and  wages.  To  this  objection 
it  may,  however,  be  answered  that,  as  the  strength  of  the 
trade  organization  is  based  on  the  skill  of  its  members,  it 
is  absolutely  essential  to  maintain  the  standard  of  ef- 
ficiency of  all  recruits  and,  if  that  standard  is  raised,  the 
power  of  the  organization  is,  in  the  long  run,  increased 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  435 

instead  of  diminished.  There  should  be  an  advance  all 
along  the  line  and  the  unions  of  skilled  workers  should,  in 
the  competitive  struggle,  be  keen  to  seize  upon  a  new  point 
of  vantage  as  they  leave  the  old  one  to  a  lower  grade  of 
laborers.  Finally,  it  is  obvious  that  any  policy  which  re- 
stricts skill  in  either  degree  or  diffusion  must  in  the  end 
be  suicidal,  as  are  all  retrogressive  measures.  Working- 
men,  as  individuals  and  as  a  class,  have  nothing  to  lose  and 
everything  to  gain  through  improved  methods  of  indus- 
trial education. 

1.  The  Decline  of  the  Apprenticeship  System:  The  su- 
premacy of  the  gild  organization  of  the  Middle  Ages  was 
rooted  in  the  practical  efficiency  and  the  strict  exclusive- 
ness  of  the  apprenticeship  system  of  trade  education. 
Originally  the  indentured  apprentice  became  a  member  of 
the  family  of  his  master,  who  was  responsible  for  his  gen- 
eral well-being  and  his  morals,  as  well  as  for  his  educa- 
tion. No  gild  member  could  instruct  more  than  the  al- 
lotted number  of  regularly  bound  apprentices  and  no 
person  could  exercise  a  trade  unless  he  had  served  an 
apprenticeship  of  seven  years  therein.  Under  this  sys- 
tem a  thorough  education  was  usually  acquired,  and  the 
apprentice  normally  advanced  through  the  stage  of  jour- 
neyman to  that  of  master. 

Gradually,  however,  with  the  growth  of  capitalist 
methods  in  industry  and,  later,  with  the  introduction  of 
machinery  and  of  large  scale  production,  the  apprentice 
system  lost  its  original  character.  In  many  industries  it 
became  customary  to  employ  excessive  numbers  of  ap- 


436  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

prentices,  who  were  dismissed  at  the  end  of  their  term, 
thus  giving  rise  to  a  permanent  class  of  journeymen. 
Apprenticeship,  in  other  occupations,  was  shortened  or 
abandoned  altogether,  while  in  still  others  it  was  trans- 
formed into  child  slavery.  The  training  of  the  apprentice 
became  almost  universally  subordinate  to  the  productive 
value  of  his  labor.  Finally,  discontent  with  the  system, 
which,  with  the  laboring  class  of  England,  had  taken  the 
form  of  a  desire  for  further  legislation,  led  to  an  agitation 
among  the  manufacturers  for  the  abolition  of  all  restric- 
tion. In  1814  the  Statute  of  Apprentices,  which,  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  had  crystallized  into  law  the  important 
features  of  the  gild  custom,  was  repealed.  Apprentice- 
ship, since  the  abandonment  of  legal  regulation,  has  be- 
come merely  a  trade  custom,  or  system  of  education,  vary- 
ing with  the  needs  of  different  industries,  and  with  the 
strength  of  labor  organizations. 

In  the  United  States  the  apprenticeship  system  was 
common  until  after  the  Civil  War,  when  the  regime  of  the 
large  contractor  brought  with  it  an  increase  in  the  number 
of  low  paid  "helpers"  who  took  the  place  of  apprentices. 
Employers  gradually  became  less  willing  to  undertake 
the  responsibility  of  training  boys ;  the  children  them- 
selves became  more  independent  and  less  ready  to  submit 
to  restraint ;  and  modern  industries  arose  with  less  neces- 
sity for  a  protracted  period  of  initiation,  and  with  no  tra- 
ditions or  habits  of  trade  education. 

Legislation  in  the  United  States  has  never  attempted  to 
control  the  conduct  of  industry,  but  has  been  designed 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  437 

to  safeguard  the  interests  of  both  parties  to  a  legal  con- 
tract. Several  states  have  laws  regulating  the  trade  of 
barbers,  horseshoers  and  plumbers,  and  incidentally  pre- 
scribing a  certain  term  of  apprenticeship,  from  two  to 
four  years.  The  apprenticeship  laws  proper,  however, 
are  old  and  practically  obsolete.  They  relate  to  the  per- 
sons "who  may  be  apprenticed,  usually  minors;  to  the 
persons  who  have  authority  to  bind  them  out,  parents, 
guardians  and  officers  of  the  poor ;  to  the  term  for  which 
they  may  be  bound,  generally  until  twenty-one  years  of 
age  ;  to  unlawful  acts  affecting  apprentices,  such  as  entic- 
ing or  assisting  to  run  away ;  and  to  the  duties  of  the 
master  towards  the  apprentice,  which  are  usually  to  give 
him  an  education,  to  furnish  him  with  certain  articles, 
and  to  teach  him  the  trade. 

During  the  past  century  labor  unions  have  attempted, 
though  with  little  success,  to  take  up  the  work  of  the  gilds 
in  the  regulation  of  trade  education.  The  two  main 
objects  of  the  gild  regulations,  the  complete  education  of 
the  apprentice  and  the  protection  of  the  labor  market, 
have  been  attained,  however,  only  in  industries  in  which 
the  trade  union  has  held  undisputed  sway.  With  the 
transformation  of  the  employer  from  a  skilled  craftsman 
into  a  mere  entrepreneur  the  education  of  the  apprentice 
fell  wholly  into  the  hands  of  the  journeyman.  There  was 
no  pay  for  teaching  and  no  responsibility ;  the  journey- 
man was  often  on  piece  work  which  required  his  utmost 
exertions;  and  if  the  apprentice  showed  himself  compe- 
tent in  the  work  he  displaced  his  teacher  at  lower  wages. 


438  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Under  these  circumstances  the  tendency  has  inevitably 
been  to  give  the  apprentice  only  the  menial  tasks  of  the 
shop  and  leave  him  to  pick  up  the  trade  as  best  he  can. 
Moreover,  the  competitive  demand  for  cheap  labor  regard- 
less of  efficiency,  especially  in  contract  work  given  to  the 
lowest  bidder,  has  frequently  tempted  half-taught  ap- 
prentices to  sacrifice  their  trade  education  to  an  immedi- 
ate increase  in  wages.  Thus  apprentice  labor  has  come  to 
mean  merely  cheap  labor.  The  conditions  of  modern  in- 
dustry are,  for  the  most  part,  too  strenuous  to  allow  of 
any  serious  attempt  at  the  education  of  boys  in  the  shop. 

As  for  the  protection  of  the  labor  market,  the  unions 
have  found  this  also  impossible.  Machines  which  can  be 
managed  with  a  few  hours'  or  days'  practice  have  in  some 
trades  made  automatons  of  men.  Moreover,  the  introduc- 
tion of  labor  saving  machinery  has  doubtless  been  acceler- 
ated by  the  inefficiency  of  the  journeymen  trained  under 
the  slip-shod  methods  of  the  modern  workshop.  In  some 
trades  immigration  has  paralyzed  the  efforts  of  the 
unions,  while  in  others  fraudulent  "schools,"  which  pre- 
tend to  give  thorough  training  in  a  phenomenally  short 
time,  have  thrown  upon  the  labor  market  large  numbers 
of  superficial  workmen. 

Regulations  concerning  apprenticeship  are  commonly 
found  among  union  rules,  and  in  the  well  organized 
trades,  as  in  stone-cutting,  brick-laying  and  carpentry 
work,  they  are  enforced  in  all  union  shops.  Usually  it  is 
required  that  apprenticeship  must  begin  before  the  age 
of  fourteen  or  fifteen,  and  in  some  cases  an  upper  limit 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  439 

of  from  eighteen  to  twenty-one  is  set.  The  term  of  ap- 
prenticeship required  is  commonly  three  or  four  years, 
and  the  usual  ratio  of  apprentices  to  journeymen  is  one 
to  ten,  though  occasionally  a  ratio  as  low  as  one  to  fifteen 
is  named,  and  the  ratio  of  one  to  five  is  said  to  be  the  com- 
monest among  those  actually  enforced  by  local  unions. 
Not  infrequently  the  number  of  apprentices  allowed  by 
the  union  is  greater  than  the  masters  care  to  take. 
Though  in  some  cases  these  rules  may  have  prevented 
boys  from  learning  the  trade,  it  is  generally  child  labor 
rather  than  true  apprenticeship  which  has  been  affected, 
and  the  disappearance  of  apprentices  is  to  be  attributed 
rather  to  the  indisposition  of  the  masters  to  undertake 
their  training  than  to  any  trade  union  rules.  The  appren- 
tice question  gives  rise  to  strikes  only  when  so-called 
apprentices  ''are  employed  in  part  or  wholly  as  substi- 
tutes for  or  in  sharp  competition  with  skilled  labor."  In 
ordinary  years,  however,  only  about  one  strike  in  three 
hundred  is  caused  by  disputes  relating  to  the  apprentice- 
ship system. 

Another  cause  which  has  contributed  largely  to  the  de- 
cline of  the  apprenticeship  system  in  this  country  has 
been  the  fact  that  the  American  boy  has  been  unfitted  by 
the  purely  literary  training  of  his  public  school  education 
to  engage  in  any  manual  calling.  The  employer  is  con- 
fronted, not  only  by  the  expense  and  trouble  of  training 
apprentices,  but  by  the  unwillingness  and  unfitness  of  the 
native  born  to  learn  a  trade.  As  a  result,  employers 
have  found  it  more  profitable  to  import  foreigners  edU' 


440  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

cated  in  Europe  than  to  train  apprentices.  Within  re- 
cent years  this  tendency  has  been  checked  by  the  contract 
labor  laws,  but  the  impression  still  prevails  in  many  quar- 
ters that  Europe  is  a  never  ending  source  of  supply  of 
educated,  skilled  workmen,  while  it  is  forgotten  that,  as  a 
general  rule,  the  foreign  laborers  who  come  to  this  coun- 
try are  not  likely  to  be  as  skilled  as  those  who  remain  in 
the  country  where  they  were  educated  and  contribute  to 
its  industrial  success. 

2.  Present  Status  of  Apprenticeship:  The  Twelfth 
Census  for  1900  returns  81,482  "apprentices"  and  "ap- 
prentices and  helpers"  in  sixteen  trades  and  "other  mis- 
cellaneous industries."  Only  2.45  per  cent,  of  all  the 
persons  engaged  in  these  occupations,  however,  were 
"apprentices"  or  "apprentices  and  helpers,"  the  highest 
proportions  being  5.70  per  cent,  among  the  ' '  plumbers  and 
gas  and  steam  fitters,"  5.86  per  cent,  among  the  "machin- 
ists" and  6.72  per  cent,  in  "other  miscellaneous  indus- 
tries. ' '  If  these  figures  are  to  be  trusted,  in  no  trade  does 
the  number  of  apprentices  and  helpers  reach  the  propor- 
tion allowed  by  the  strictest  unions,  which  is  about  7  per 
cent.,  while  the  usual  allowance  of  10  per  cent,  appears  de- 
cidedly liberal.  In  general,  the  unions  have  in  the  past 
favored  the  apprenticeship  system  and  frowned  upon  in- 
dustrial education  in  schools.  This  attitude,  however, 
seems  to  be  changing,  and  recently  several  trade  schoola 
have  been  started  under  the  auspices  of  labor  unions. 

Probably  very  few,  even  of  those  classified  as  appren- 
tices, are  legally  indentured.     In   1886  the  New  Yort 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  441 

Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  found  that  in  the  four 
trades,  printing,  machinists,  carpenters,  and  plumbers, 
only  about  3  per  cent,  of  the  apprentices  replying  to  the 
question  were  legally  indentured.  In  general,  the  trvie 
indenture  is  rarely  used  except  in  charitable  and  reforma 
tory  work,  though  in  a  few  industrial  schools  articles  of  in- 
denture are  required  of  pupils.  Sometimes,  too,  among 
the  glassworkers,  apprentices  are  indentured  for  three 
years  to  union  journeymen,  while  in  Boston,  by  the  agree- 
ment of  1899  with  the  Bricklayers'  Union,  apprentices 
are  regularly  indentured. 

Several  large  establishments  in  this  country  maintain  a 
systematic  apprenticeship,  though  the  methods  of  instruc- 
tion differ  radically  from  those  of  the  old  system.  The 
Baldwin  Locomotive  Works  of  Philadelphia,  and  the 
Brown  and  Sharpe  Manufacturing  Company  of  Provi- 
dence, for  instance,  have  placed  their  apprentices  in 
charge  of  special  instructors,  who  keep  them  at  each  oper- 
ation until  it  is  thoroughly  learned.  In  both  these  estab- 
lishments the  apprentices  are  indentured  and  are  required 
to  attend  evening  schools.  The  Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works  alone  employ  more  than  one  thousand  appren- 
tices. The  Wanamaker  department  store  in  Philadelphia 
also  has  a  system  of  business  education  which  is  similar 
to  an  apprenticeship,  though  there  is  no  indenture,  and 
the  methods  are  in  some  ways  more  comparable  to  those 
of  a  school.  Certain  features  of  th*^  Wanamaker  method 
have  been  adopted  by  stores  in  other  cities.  The  Midvale 
Steel  Company  of  Philadelphia  has  a  system  of  inden- 


442  1.AB0R  PROBLEMS 

tared  apprenticeship  and  pays  the  Franklin  Institute  foi' 
the  night  instruction  of  its  apprentices. 

Among  the  locomotive  engineers,  the  term  apprentice  is 
utterly  unknown,  but  the  service  as  fireman,  which 
usually  lasts  about  three  j^ears,  corresponds  roughly  to  an 
apprenticeship.  In  other  branches  of  the  railway  service, 
apprentices  receive  little  or  no  special  instruction,  and 
technical  education  is  seriously  needed. 

The  great  majority  of  apprentices  begin  work  between 
the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen.  An  investigation  in 
Wisconsin  in  1888  showed  that  of  538  journejTnen,  44  had 
entered  the  trade  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  thirteen, 
311  between  fourteen  and  eighteen,  89  between  eighteen 
and  twenty-one,  and  the  rest  at  twenty-two  years  of  age  or 
over.  The  term  of  apprenticeship  varies  considerably  in 
different  industries,  but  from  three  to  five  j^ears  may  be 
said  to  be  the  usual  period. 

As  for  the  education  of  apprentices,  the  universal  testi- 
mony is  that  the  instruction  given  in  the  ordinary  shop  is 
wholly  inadequate,  and  that  apprenticeship  tends  con- 
stantly to  degenerate  into  child  labor.  In  the  AVisconsin 
investigation  before  mentioned  it  was  asked  whether  the 
apprentices  received  proper  encouragement  from  the  em- 
ployers and  from  the  journeymen.  The  replies  may  be 
classified  as  follows : 


No 

Yes 

From  the  employers    .     . 

.     .     .     233 

130 

From  the  journeymen 

.     .     .     188 

146 

Tlie  answers  of  trade  union  officials  to  the  questions  of 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  443 

the  New  York  Commissioner  of  Labor  showed  that  in 
twenty-nine  trades  the  boys  were  not  taught  all  branches, 
in  sixteen  they  were  taught  all  branches,  and  in  eight 
trades  they  were  sometimes  taught  and  sometimes  not. 

Nevertheless,  although  apprenticeship  appears  to  be  a 
di.^mal  failure  so  far  as  broad  trade  education  is  con- 
cerned, in  certain  occupations  the  qualities  of  workman- 
ship, especially  rapidity,  which  are  a  necessary  part  of  a 
thorough  technical  training,  can  not  be  attained  without 
a  more  or  less  extended  experience  in  actual  shop  w^ork, 
and  the  term  of  this  experience  is  usually  called  an  ap- 
prenticeship. In  many  eases  these  so-called  apprentices 
may,  however,  have  received  previous  training  in  a  trade 
school  or  be  receiving  supplementary  training  in  a  con- 
tinuation school  at  the  time  of  employment.  x\pprentice- 
ship,  then,  holds  its  own  successfully  in  certain  industries, 
though  even  in  those  trades  in  which  it  is  most  successful 
there  is  a  tendency  to  recognize  the  need  of  a  thorough 
theoretical  training  as  supplementary  to  shop  work. 

3.  Industrial  Education:  In  a  broad  sense  appren- 
ticeship is  a  system  of  industrial  education,  but  the  latter 
term  has  come  to  signify  a  method  under  which,  instead 
of  the  subordination  of  education  to  production,  produc- 
tion is  subordinated  to  education.  In  other  words,  the 
idea  of  some  sort  of  school  organization  is  associated  with 
the  term  industrial  education. 

Several  classes  of  institutions  which  give  to  their  stu- 
dents more  or  less  mechanical  skill  must  be  excluded 
from  the  rigid  definition  of  industrial  schools.     There 


444  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

were  in  the  United  States  in  1903,  for  instance,  some 
sixty-five  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Colleges,  with  an 
enrolment  of  47,047,  most  of  which  belong  to  the  category 
of  colleges  or  professional  schools.  In  several  of  the  agri- 
cultural colleges,  however,  notably  those  of  Minnesota  and 
Wisconsin,  the  realization  that  comparatively  few  of  their 
graduates  "have  returned  to  the  farms,  but  many  of 
them  are  found  in  the  management  of  our  manufacturing 
industries,"  has  led  to  the  establishment  of  short  winter 
courses  in  agriculture,  designed  especially  for  practical 
farmers.  These  courses,  and  also  the  dairy  schools,  are 
examples  of  true  industrial  education.  Other  so-called 
agricultural  colleges  offer  instruction  of  a  purely  indus- 
trial character,  as  in  the  case  of  the  colored  Agricultural 
and  Mechanical  College  at  Greensboro,  North  Carolina,  in 
which  the  leading  mechanical  trades  are  taught  in  four 
year  courses.  Clemson  College,  also,  in  South  Carolina, 
has  a  textile  department,  added  in  1898,  which  is 
equipped  with  a  full  line  of  cotton-mill  machinery,  and 
similar  departments  were  established  in  1899  at  the  North 
Carolina  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanical  Arts 
and  in  1900  at  the  Mississippi  Agricultural  and  Mechan- 
ical College. 

Other  institutions  which  are  excluded  from  the  rigid 
interpretation  of  the  idea  of  industrial  education  are 
the  great  technical  colleges,  which  give  education  of  a 
professional  rather  than  of  an  industrial  character,  and 
the  manual  training  schools,  which  use  the  manual  as  an 
aid  to  the  intellectual,  and  do  not  prepare  the  student 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  445 

specifically  for  any  trade.  Nevertheless,  the  institutes  of 
technology  are  important  as  the  earliest  efforts  in  this 
country  for  education  of  an  industrial  character,  while 
the  manual  training  high  schools  are  a  distinct  American 
type,  and  bid  fair  to  overcome  the  objection  previously 
made  that  a  public  school  training  tends  to  unfit  boys  for  \ 
manual  callings.  Moreover,  the  need  of  to-day  is  said  to 
be  not  so  much  for  specialized  skill  as  for  that  general 
intelligence  and  broad  training  that  will  enable  the  work- 
man to  pass  with  a  minimum  of  inconvenience  from  one 
occupation  to  another,  and  this  general  intelligence  and 
broad  training  it  is  the  aim  of  the  manual  training  school 
to  supply.  Up  to  the  present  time,  however,  the  gradu- 
ates of  these  schools  have  seldom  become  mechanics. 

The  true  industrial  schools,  those  which  give  practical 
trade  instruction,  are  divided,  in  the  Seventeenth  Annual 
Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  on 
Trade  and  Technical  Education,  into  three  classes,  (a) 
trade  schools,  (b)  technical  schools,  and  (c)  schools  of  in- 
dustrial drawing  and  design.  Of  these  the  schools  of  in- 
dustrial drawing  and  design  were  the  earliest,  for  it  was 
in  the  application  of  art  to  industry  that  apprenticeship 
first  showed  its  weakness.  Gradually,  however,  the  tech- 
nical or  continuation  schools,  and  later  the  true  trade 
schools,  appeared. 

4.  Trade  Schools:  The  trade  school  is  a  direct  substi- 
tute for  apprenticeship  and  aims  to  give  the  pupil  a  thor- 
ough practical  knowledge  of  some  handicraft,  graduatiag 
him  fully  equipped  except  as  to  speed,  which  is  more  eas- 


446  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ily  acquired  imder  ordinary  Avorkinfi:  conditions.  In  its 
simplest  form  the  instruction  of  the  trade  school  "is  con- 
fined entirely  or  chiefly  to  the  workshop,  and  consists  in 
perfecting  the  pupil  in  the  practice  of  the  manipulations 
and  operations  of  skilled  workmen  at  particular  trades." 

There  are,  however,  two  types  of  schools,  those  which, 
like  the  New  York  Trade  School,  give  short,  intensely 
practical  courses,  and  those  which,  like  the  Williamson 
school,  near  Philadelphia,  and  the  two  San  Francisco 
trade  schools,  give  thorough  instruction  extending  over 
four  years  and  covering  in  theoretical  work  substantially 
the  same  subjects  as  the  manual  training  high  schools, 
"with  special  adaptation  in  the  last  half  of  the  course  to 
the  particular  trade  which  the  pupil  is  learning."  The 
latter  type  is  the  newer  and  undoubtedly  the  more 
thorough,  but  it  can  scarcely  supply  the  place  of  the  short 
term  trade  school,  because  of  its  long  postponement  of  the 
practical  results  which  are  so  much  in  demand.  The 
training  of  the  long  course  schools  '  *  is  expected  to  insure 
rapid  advancement  beyond  the  grade  of  journeyman." 

The  principal  occupations  for  which  trade  schools  have 
been  established  are  the  building  and  mechanical  trades, 
barbering,  brewing,  dairying,  dressmaking,  tailoring,  mil- 
linery, domestic  science,  textile  manufacture  and  watch- 
making. 

The  New  York  Trade  School,  founded  by  Colonel  Rich- 
ard T.  Auchmuty  in  1881,  is  the  largest  and  most  thor- 
oughly equipped  exclusively  trade  school  in  the  United 
States.     The  courses  include  electrical  work,  pattern  mak- 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  447 

ing,  plumbing',  printinj?,  bricklaying:,  carpentry,  house, 
fresco,  and  sign  painting,  drawing,  blacksmithing,  steam 
and  hot  water  fitting,  plastering,  and  cornice  making. 
This  school  has  no  European  prototype,  though  it  was  es- 
tablished after  careful  study  of  foreign  experience.  In 
the  day  classes  four  consecutive  months  are  necessary  to 
complete  the  course,  while  in  the  evening  classes  a  much 
longer  time  is  required.  The  system  of  instruction  em- 
ployed is  known  as  the  "Auchmuty  system,"  and  com- 
bines the  practical  and  theoretical  "so  that  not  only  is 
skill  quickly  acquired,  but  the  scientific  principles  that 
underlie  the  work  are  also  studied."^  This  system  has 
been  remarkably  successful  and  has  been  adopted  in  a 
few  courses  in  other  schools,  notably  Pratt  Institute  in 
Brooklyn  and  St.  George's  Evening  Trade  School  in  New 
York. 

There  are  many  other  schools  which  give  courses  in  the 
building  and  mechanical  trades,  the  most  important  of 
which  are  the  Williamson  Free  School  of  Mechanical 
Trades  of  Philadelphia,  the  California  School  of  Mechan- 
ical Arts  and  the  Wilmerding  School  of  Industrial  Arts, 
both  of  San  Francisco,  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Trade  School 
of  New  York  City,  and  the  Hebrew  Technical  Institute, 
also  of  New  York  City.  Nearly  all  of  the  numerous  in- 
dustrial schools  for  the  white  and  colored  races,  which  are 
scattered  through  the  South,  give  instruction  in  these 
trades. 


*  Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Commissioner  oi 
Lat>or,  p.  25. 


448  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

It  is  generally  agreed  that,  in  the  building  and  mechan- 
ical industries,  "the  trade  school  alone  can  not  make  a 
first-class  mechanic,  as  the  usual  period  of  instruction  in 
such  schools  does  not  admit  of  sufficient  practical  work  to 
enable  the  student  to  acquire  that  dexterity  and  tact 
which  are  essential.  The  best  results  are  obtained  when 
shop  training  is  supplemented  by  such  technical  training 
as  is  given  in  the  evening  trade  schools.  This  system  it  is 
said  enables  the  student  to  apply  the  principles  he  is 
studying  to  the  conditions  and  difficulties  encountered  in 
his  daily  work  and  he  has  a  better  appreciation  of  their 
value,  and  consequently  takes  more  interest  in  his 
studies."^  Nevertheless,  it  is  also  agreed  that  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  theory  of  the  trade,  especially  plumbing, 
can  not  be  acquired  outside  of  a  trade  or  technical  school. 

Barber  schools  have  been  established  exclusively  as  a 
short  cut  to  the  trade,  and  are  not  generally  considered 
satisfactory.  It  is  claimed  that  the  time  required  for 
graduation  is  entirely  too  short  and  that  the  practical  in- 
struction is  too  meager.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  to 
existing  schools,  however,  it  is  believed  "that  schools 
properly  conducted  and  offering  a  course  of  training  of 
two  or  three  years  would  be  of  benefit  to  the  trade. '  * 

Brewing  schools,  on  the  other  hand,  are  universally  ap- 
proved by  employers  and  graduates,  and  are  the  best,  if 
not  the  only,  places  where  a  thorough  technical  knowledge 
of  the  trade  can  be  acquired.     These  schools  grew  out  of  a 


*  Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  p.  371. 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  449 

distinct  need  within  the  industry  for  more  exact  scientific 
knowledge  of  the  processes  involved  in  brewing.  As  a 
rule,  only  those  who  have  had  experience  are  received  as 
students  and  the  scheme  of  instruction  presupposes  fa- 
miliarity with  the  practical  work  of  the  brewery.  These 
schools  have  been  of  marked  benefit  both  to  the  industry 
and  to  the  students  themselves.  With  the  knowledge  of 
scientific  methods  many  radical  improvements  in  produc- 
tion have  been  introduced,  which  have  eliminated  guess- 
work, have  made  use  of  materials  formerly  thrown  aside, 
and  have  improved,  not  only  the  quality,  but  also  the 
quantity  of  the  product.  Graduates  of  the  schools  are  in 
great  demand,  are  always  preferred  by  employers,  and  re- 
ceive from  25  to  50  per  cent,  higher  wages  than  others. 
There  are  four  brewers'  schools  in  the  United  States,  two 
in  New  York  City,  one  in  Chicago  and  one  in  Milwaukee. 
The  dairy  schools  are  all  connected  with  colleges  of 
agriculture  and  mechanic  arts.  The  first  one  was  estab- 
lished in  connection  with  the  agricultural  college  of  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  in  1891,  "in  the  belief  that  a 
school  in  which  butter  and  cheese  making  should  be 
taught  would  be  of  great  value  to  the  dairy  industry,  and 
consequently  greatly  benefit  the  farmers."  Appropria- 
tions for  dairy  schools  in  Iowa  and  Minnesota  were  made 
in  the  same  year,  and  in  1900-1901  there  were  1,402  stu- 
dents  in  attendance  in  thirty-five  schools.  In  nearly  all 
cases  a  certain  amount  of  actual  expsrience  in  a  creamery 
or  cheese  factory  is  a  prerequisite  for  instruction,  and  the 
graduates  are  usually  employed  as  superintendents  of 
29 


450  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

creameries.  Dairy  schools  are  said  to  have  caused  the 
creamery  industry  to  grow  within  a  decade  to  proportions 
which  it  would  normally  have  taken  many  years  to  reach, 
and  i;he  graduates  of  these  schools  are  always  preferred  by 
employers,  and  receive  from  20  to  50  per  cent,  higher 
wages  than  non-graduates. 

The  industrial  education  of  girls  is  provided  for  by  a 
large  variety  of  schools  of  dressmaking,  millinery  and  do- 
mestic science.  In  many  cities  such  instruction  is  carried 
on  by  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  but 
work  of  a  more  ambitious  character  is  found  in  Pratt  In- 
stitute, Brooklyn,  Drexel  Institute,  Philadelphia,  and 
Armour  Institute,  Chicago.  These  three  schools  have  had 
a  great  influence  upon  the  work  elsewhere,  as  their  gradu- 
ates have  generally  become  teachers.  In  Boston  the 
Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union  was  a 
pioneer  in  this  class  of  instruction,  and  in  the  South  there 
are  many  girls'  schools  which  are  doing  valuable  work 
along  this  line.  In  New  York  City  the  Manhattan  Trade 
School  for  Girls,  with  day  and  evening  classes  in  machine 
operating,  upholstery,  hand-sewing,  and  the  pasting  of  ar- 
tificial flowers  and  boxes,  began  its  work  in  the  fall  of 
1902,  and  in  the  same  year  it  was  decided  to  add  technical 
instruction  in  trades  to  the  curriculum  of  two  of  the 
girls'  high  schools. 

The  general  testimony  is  that  "girls  who  have  gradu- 
ated at  training  schools  for  domestics  do  better  work  and 
more  of  it  in  a  given  time  than  those  who  have  not  had 
such  training,  and  they  do  not  require  constant  over- 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  451 

sight."  In  the  dressmaking  trade  it  is  said  that  in  ordi- 
nary work  the  graduates  of  schools  have  little  or  no  ad- 
vantage, but  in  the  art  of  cutting  and  fitting  they  are  far 
superior.  No  apprenticeship  is  usually  required  of  school 
graduates,  who  receive  higher  wages,  steadier  employ- 
ment and  more  rapid  promotion  than  others.  The  gradu-  i 
ates  of  millinery  schools  are  also  preferred  by  em- 
ployers. 

The  textile  schools  give  in  their  longer  courses,  which 
extend  over  four  years  in  the  day  classes,  the  most 
thorough  scientific  and  technical  instruction.  These 
schools  are  a  direct  effort  to  foster  the  textile  industries  of 
particular  localities  through  education,  and  they  repre- 
sent the  most  important  instance  in  this  country  in  which 
trade  schools  have  received  governmental  aid.  The  earli- 
est was  the  Philadelphia  school,  which  was  opened  in  1883, 
and  is  an  outgrowth  and  a  department  of  the  School  of 
Industrial  Art.  The  state  of  Pennsylvania  has  contrib- 
uted liberally  towards  its  support,  though  it  was  estab- 
lished and  equipped  by  the  manufacturers  of  Philadel- 
phia. Lowell,  New  Bedford  and  Fall  River,  Massa- 
chusetts, also  have  textile  schools,  supported  partly  by  the 
state,  and  partly  by  the  municipalities.  These  schools 
have  both  day  and  evening  classes,  the  latter  intended  for 
those  actively  engaged  in  the  industry,  and  adapted  to 
their  needs.  This  training  for  actual  operatives  might 
be  almost  indefinitely  extended.  In  New  Bedford,  Massa- 
chusetts, is  located  the  American  Correspondence  School 
of  Textiles,  which  is  rather  a  technical  than  a  trade  school. 


452  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

as  it  is  designed  to  supplement  the  work  of  persons  regu- 
larly engaged  in  textile  mills.  The  special  training  of- 
fered by  these  schools  has  been  a  benefit  both  to  the  in- 
dustry and  to  the  graduates,  especially  in  the  manufactur- 
ing branches.  It  requires,  however,  about  four  years' 
practical  experience  to  become  a  competent  workman,  and 
though  this  time  can  be  shortened  by  the  school  training 
it  can  not  as  yet  be  done  away  with. 

Schools  for  watchmakers  and  engravers  owe  their  ex- 
istence to  the  great  subdivision  of  labor  in  the  factories, 
and  to  the  need  for  better  and  more  thoroughly  equipped 
workmen.  The  principal  schools  are  the  Waltham  Horo- 
logical  School  of  Waltham,  Massachusetts,  and  the  Horo- 
logical  School  of  Bradley  Polytechnic  Institute  of  Peoria, 
Illinois.  Though  these  schools  have  had  little  effect  upon 
the  industry  as  a  whole,  in  the  repairing  branch  school 
trained  men  are  recognized  as  doing  more  and  better  work, 
and  they  receive  from  10  to  50  per  cent,  higher  wages  than 
those  who  have  had  no  school  training. 

5.  Technical  and  Art  Schools:  Technical  or  continua- 
tion schools  are  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  Workers  al- 
ready engaged  in  trades.  In  the  simplest  form  of  tech- 
nical school  the  instruction  is  limited  to  the  school  room 
or  the  laboratory,  and  the  tools  and  machines  are  used  by 
the  instructor  only  for  the  purpose  of  clearly  illustrating 
the  application  of  the  theoretical  and  scientific  teaching 
to  the  particular  trades.  The  purpose  is  to  give  to  work- 
men an  understanding  of  the  scientific  principles  in- 
volved in  their  work.     Most  of  these  are  evening  or  cor- 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  453 

respondence  schools,  though  some  of  them  have  daily 
sessions   during  the  dull  season  in  the  trade. 

Though  this  is  one  of  the  oldest  types  of  industrial 
school,  the  need  for  such  education  seems  to  have  been 
within  the  last  few  years  more  keenly  felt  than  ever  be- 
fore, as  is  shown  by  the  rapid  growth  and  success  of  the 
Young  Men 's  Christian  Association  classes  and  of  the  cor- 
respondence schools.  The  former  have  about  six  thou- 
sand pupils,  while  the  latter  claim  an  enrolment  of  more 
than  three  hundred  thousand.  The  most  notable  ex- 
amples of  the  older  schools  are  the  Spring  Garden  Insti- 
tute, Philadelphia,  the  School  of  the  General  Society  of 
Mechanics  and  Tradesmen,  New  York,  and  the  Newark 
Technical  School.  Among  the  more  recent  schools  hav- 
ing courses  of  this  character  are  the  Drexel  Institute, 
Philadelphia,  and  the  Athenaeum  and  Mechanics'  Insti- 
tute of  Rochester,  New  York. 

One  serious  objection  to  these  technical  schools  designed 
for  workmen  already  engaged  in  their  trades  is  that  they 
are  usually  obliged  to  carry  on  their  instruction  in  even- 
ing sessions  after  the  day's  work  is  done  and  when  the 
student  is  already  tired  out  mentally  and  physically. 
"He  comes  more  or  less  worn  out  by  his  day's  toil,  and  he 
reaches  home  long  after  his  usual  retiring  hour,  prac- 
tically exhausted.  His  mind  can  not  be  alert  with  his 
body  in  a  fagged-out  condition,  and  hence  this  class  of  in- 
struction is  at  once  a  great  hardship  and,  in  comparison 
with  day  schools,  it  is  of  relatively  little  profit.  Men  who 
are  engaged  in  any  kind  of  actual  manual  labor  through 


454  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  day  are  greatly  handicapped  in  their  attendance  upon 
such  schools.  They  are  most  valuable  for  clerks,  book- 
keepers, draftsmen  and  the  like.  They  can  never  become 
a  very  substantial  element  in  the  technical  education  of 
the  industrial  classes. '  '^  Moreover,  such  schools  are  fre- 
quently poorly  taught.  Nevertheless,  they  represent  the 
only  opportunities  open  to  a  large  body  of  wage  earners. 

Correspondence  schools  are  aimed  to  meet  the  needs  of 
those  who  are  debarred  by  circumstances  of  locality  or 
time  from  attendance  at  night  school,  but  who  are  em- 
bitious  to  acquire  theoretical  knowledge  along  the  line  of 
their  work.  They  appeal  particularly  to  mechanics  and 
apprentices  in  trades  which  require  more  theoretical 
knowledge  than  can  be  acquired  in  the  daily  routine. 
The  success  of  this  method  depends  largely  upon  the  sub- 
division of  the  subject  into  many  short  and  simple  parts 
which  are  sent  to  the  students  in  a  fixed  order.  These 
courses  are  adapted  to  the  needs  of  all  grades  of  workmen. 
Though  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  students  keep  on 
long  enough  to  complete  their  course,  which  takes  usually 
five  or  six  years,  there  are  many  cases  in  which  this  sys- 
tem of  instruction  has  enabled  students  to  advance  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher  branches  of  a  trade,  or  to  change 
from  one  occupation  to  an  entirely  different  one.  Some 
of  the  correspondence  schools,  however,  are  mere  money 
making  schemes,  and  their  instruction  is  practically 
worthless. 


*  Report  of  the  (United  States)  Commlaaioner  of  Education,  1901,  Vol 
I,  p.  224. 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  455 

The  schools  of  industrial  drawing  and  design  furnish 
instruction  in  freehand  and  mechanical  drawing  and  in 
design  applied  to  various  industries.  A  good  deal  of  at- 
tention is  usually  given  to  the  study  of  the  processes  of 
manufacture,  and  of  the  materials  used.  There  are  three 
main  types  of  these  schools,  (a)  the  simplest  type  repre- 
sented by  evening  classes  in  industrial  drawing  such  as 
those  of  the  public  schools  of  Massachusetts  and  Franklin 
Institute  of  Philadelphia,  (b)  the  schools  of  art  and  de- 
sign, such  as  Cooper  Union  of  New  York  and  the  Mary- 
land Institute  of  Baltimore,  and  (c)  the  schools  of  design 
exclusively,  such  as  the  Lowell  School  of  Design  of  Boston 
and  the  Philadelphia  School  of  Design.  Many  of  these 
are  much  older  than  the  trade  and  technical  schools,  and 
several  of  them  date  back  to  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

Both  architectural  and  mechanical  draftsmen  who  are 
graduates  of  schools  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  the 
benefits  derived  from  their  instruction.  The  art  courses 
offered  in  this  country  are  not,  however,  as  good  as  those 
of  the  European  schools,  and  the  progress  in  form  and 
art  is  not  equal  to  that  which  has  been  made  in  other  kinds 
of  industrial  and  technical  training. 

6.  General  Aspects:  Industrial  education  in  the 
United  States  has  never  been  thoroughly  organized  and 
correlated,  as  it  is  in  several  European  countries,  which 
have  complete  systems  extending  from  the  kindergarten 
up  through  manual  training,  trade  and  technical  schools 
to    the   higher   engineering   and    scientific    institutions. 


456  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

Moreover,  governmental  support  and  administration, 
which  is  the  rule  in  Europe,  is  new  and  comparatively 
rare  in  this  country.  Progress  has  been  made  in  the  way 
of  independent  growth,  but  there  is  no  coordination  be- 
tween the  different  classes  of  schools,  nearly  all  of  which 
are  the  result  of  private  initiative  and  support.  Never- 
theless, the  number  of  excellent  trade  and  technical 
schools  is  increasing  yearly,  and  already  there  are  several, 
such  as  the  New  York  Trade  School,  the  Williamson  and 
the  San  Francisco  trade  schools,  Drexel  and  Pratt  Insti- 
tutes, the  textile  schools,  and  the  New  York  Institute  for 
Artist-Artisans,  which  compare  favorably  with  any  in 
Europe. 

The  problem  of  industrial  education  in  the  South, 
which  is  somewhat  different  from  that  in  the  North,  owing 
to  the  presence  of  the  colored  race  and  to  the  high  pro- 
portion of  ignorant  whites,  has  led  to  the  establishment  in 
that  section  of  a  large  number  of  industrial  schools.  Most 
of  these  are  small  and  many  of  them  are  poorly  equipped, 
but  all  are  doing  their  share  towards  the  work  of  practical 
education.  The  schools  for  the  colored  race  range  in  size 
from  those  having  about  thirty  pupils  to  such  institutions 
as  the  State  Normal  School  for  Colored  Students  in  ^lont- 
gomery,  Alabama,  with  865  pupils,  and  Tuskegee  Normal 
and  Industrial  Institute,  Tuskegee,  Alabama,  with  1,083 
pupils,  619  of  them  taking  the  trade  education  courses. 
These  schools  are  either  partially  supported  by  charity  or 
are  state  institutions,  frequently  receiving  Federal  aid. 
They  are  eminently  practical  and  are  directly  aimed  to 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 


457 


enable  their  students  to  earn  a  livelihood.  The  Southern 
industrial  schools  for  the  white  race  are  somewhat  smaller 
than  those  for  the  colored  race,  and  are  fewer  in  number, 
but  they  also  are  partly  charitable. 

Industrial  education  is,  on  the  whole,  however,  far  more 
advanced  in  the  Northern  than  in  the  Southern  States, 
This  is  shown  in  the  following  table,  which  gives  by  geo- 
graphical divisions  the  number  of  schools  reported  by  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for  the  scholas- 
tic year  ending  June,  1902,  as  devoted  chiefly  to  manual 
and  industrial  training,  with  the  total  number  of  pupils 
and  instructors  in  the  manual,  industrial  and  technical 
training  departments : 


Number 
of  insti- 
tutions 

Number 

of  in- 
structors 

Number 
of  ele- 
mentary 
pupils 

Number 

of 
secondary 
students 

United  States 

North  Atlantic  division 
South  Atlantic       " 
South  Central        " 
North  Central        " 
Western                  " 

163 
55 
21 
15 
45 
27 

1,559 
648 
121 
63 
490 
237 

18,199 
5,981 
1,591 
1,202 
5,580 
3,845 

31,070 

19,577 

1,356 

632 

7,570 

1,935 

Recently  there  has  been  a  growing  movement  towards 
and  sentiment  in  favor  of  public  assistance  for  industrial 
education.  This  is  displayed  in  the  state  and  municipal 
aid  given  to  textile  schools  and  in  the  establishment  of  in- 


458  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

dustrial  departments  and  courses  in  the  State  Universities 
and  Agricultural  Colleges.  There  is  also  a  considerable 
body  of  opinion  which  favors  the  increased  use  of  Federal 
funds  for  trade  education  in  the  South.  The  fact  that 
technical  education  is  more  expensive  than  any  other  kind 
is  urged  as  an  argument  for  public  action. 

Industrial  education  in  schools  is  gradually  supersed- 
ing the  apprenticeship  system.  In  some  trades  this 
movement  is  rapid  and  in  others  it  is  slow.  In  some 
trades  the  graduate  of  the  school  can  entirely  omit  shop 
apprenticeship,  while  in  others  the  necessary  apprentice- 
ship can  not  at  the  present  time  be  even  shortened  by  such 
preparation.  Much,  of  course,  depends  upon  the  school, 
its  equipment,  its  methods  and  the  practical  character  of 
its  work.  Some  institutions  send  out  graduates  fully 
equipped  and  others  do  not  pretend  to  furnish  more  than 
a  preliminary  training.  The  schools,  however,  are 
rapidly  improving,  and  the  broader  basis  of  theoretical 
knowledge  possessed  by  their  graduates  is  sure  to  bring 
increased  general  efficiency,  more  rapid  advance,  higher 
wages  and  greater  certainty  of  employment. 
/  In  conclusion,  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  the  need  of 
/  the  day  is  for  greater  skill  instead  of  less,  and  this  need 
will  inevitably  increase  in  the  future.  As  industry  be- 
comes more  and  more  highly  specialized  and  systemat- 
ically organized,  the  laboring  classes  must  more  and  more 
follow  the  example  of  the  professional  classes  and  learn 
to  work  before  they  apply  for  employment.     ' '  The  day  of 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  459 

mere  muscle  in  industry  has  passed  and  the  day  of  mind, 
with  skill  of  eye  and  hand,  has  dawned. '  '^ 

References  :  The  principal  authority  relied  upon  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  chapter  has  been  the  Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  the 
(United  States)  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1902,  on  Trade  and  Technical 
Education,  which  contains  a  brief  review  of  the  subject,  pp.  7-15,  a 
description  of  trade  and  technical  education  in  the  United  States,  pp. 
17-424,  and  a  careful  treatment  of  trade  and  technical  education  in  the 
Tarious  European  countries  and  in  Canada.  The  Eiphth  Annual  Report 
of  the  (United  States)  Commissioner  of  Labor  was  also  upon  Industrial 
Education,  but  this  is  now  obsolete.  The  Reports  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  contain  a  chapter  devoted  to  manual  and  Industrial  train- 
ing, and  usually  one  devoted  to  recent  statistics  of  the  agricultural  and 
mechanical  colleges.  The  Bureau  of  Education  has  also  issued  a  spe- 
cial report,  prepared  by  Mr.  Isaac  Edwards  Clarke,  A.  M.,  on  Education 
in  the  Industrial  and  Fine  Arts  in  the  United  States,  of  which  Parts 
III  and  IV,  entitled  Industrial  and  Technical  Training  in  Voluntary  As- 
sociations and  Endowed  Institutions,  and  Industrial  and  Technical 
Training  in  Schools  of  Technology  and  United  States  Land  Grant  Col- 
leges, bear  in  part  upon  the  subject  of  this  chapter.  The  Report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Commission  Appointed  to  Investigate  the  Existing  Sys- 
tems of  Manual  Training  and  Industrial  Education,  1893,  is  also  valu- 
able. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Apprenticeship : 

(a)  Third  Biennial  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor 

and  Industrial  Statistics.  1888,  pp.  165-186. 

(b)  Fourth  Report  of  the  (New  York)  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 

Labor,  1886,  pp.  21-408.     Passim. 

(c)  Fourth   Report  of  the  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor.  1S94, 

pp.   126-382. 

2.  Industrial  Education : 

(a)  Bolen,  Getting  a  Living,  "Learning  a  Trade,"  pp.  299-329. 

(b)  Pritchett,   "Industrial  and  Technical  Training  in  Popular 

Education."   Educational   Review,   Vol.    XXIII,   pp.   281- 
303. 

(c)  Dyer,   "Industrial   Training,"   The  Evolution  of  Industry, 

pp.    185-209. 

(d)  Sixth  Report  of  the  Nebraska  Bureau  of  Labor  and  In- 

dustrial Statistics,  1898,  pp.  593-719. 

S.     Higher  Technical  Training : 

(a)   Wallier,    "Technological    Education,"   Discussions  in  Edu- 
cation, pp.  3-111. 

*  Bureau  of  Education,  Education  in  the  Industrial  and  Fine  Arta  in 
th*  United  States,  Part  IV,  1898,  General  John  Eaton,  p.  721. 


460  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

(ft)    Schoenhof,  "Higher  Technical  Training,"  The  Forum,  Vol 
31,  pp.  561-575. 

4.     Attitude  of  Labor  Organizations : 

(a)  Bemis.  "The  Relation  of  Labor  Organizations  to  the  Amer- 
ican Boy  and  to  Trade  Instruction,"  Annala  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Vol.. 
V,  pp.  209-241. 

[Note  :  See  also  "Trade  and  Technical  Education  In  the  United 
States,"  Bulletin  of  the  (United  States)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  54,  pp 
1369-1417.J 


CHAPTER  XII 


LABOR  LAWS 


Just  as  most  industrial  evils  finally  express  themselves 
in  terms  of  poverty,  so  most  if  not  all  the  methods  of  im- 
proving the  conditions  of  employment  find  a  common  ex- 
pression in  labor  legislation.  In  the  present  chapter  a 
brief  review  of  the  more  important  labor  laws  is  given,  in 
order  to  bring  rapidly  before  the  reader  some  of  those 
methods  of  amelioration  and  betterment  which  have  not 
been  specially  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapters  of  this 
book,  and  in  order,  more  particularly,  to  call  attention  to 
the  growing  and  significant  movement  to  improve  the 
conditions  of  the  laboring  classes  by  legislative  enactment. 

1.  Historical  Development  of  Labor  Legislation:  In 
order  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  this  movement,  it  is 
necessary  to  refer  briefly  to  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
Europe  before  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
For  many  centuries  preceding  the  industrial  revolution, 
the  conditions  of  labor  had  been  minutely,  and  rather  un- 
generously, regulated  by  the  state  :  labor  was  compulsory, 
and  wages,  hours  of  labor,  and  the  proportion  of  appren- 
tices to  journeymen  was  fixed  by  statute  or  by  officers  of 
the  law;  in  England,  at  least,  the  passage  of  the  poorer 
laborers  from  parish  to  parish  was  very  strictly  guarded, 

461 


462  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

and  the  combination  of  laborers  in  strikes  and  trade  un- 
ions was  rigorously  prohibited.  The  men  who  settled 
America  brought  to  this  country  the  social  philosophy 
upon  which  this  legal  system  was  based,  and  at  one  time  or 
another,  most  of  the  New  England  colonies  attempted  to 
fix  wages  by  statute,  or  fined  ambitious  workmen  for  tak- 
ing more  than  the  legal  rates. 

Owing  to  the  ease  with  which  land  could  be  obtained  in 
the  American  colonies,  laws  designed  to  reduce  the  wages 
and  opportunities  of  the  working  classes  were  foredoomed 
to  failure,  and  the  old  system  of  state  control  never  ob- 
tained any  real  foothold  here.  Even  in  Europe  it  began 
to  break  down  in  the  eighteenth  century,  as  the  old  indus- 
trial order  yielded  to  the  new.  A  class  of  employers  arose 
to  whom  the  old  regulations  were  vexatious  and  burden- 
some. Mill  owners,  for  instance,  did  not  wish  a  seven 
years'  apprenticeship  for  the  women  and  children  who 
were  to  run  the  cotton  mules  and  the  power  looms. 
Under  the  combined  assaults  of  Adam  Smith,  the  physio- 
cratic  philosophy  and  the  new  manufacturing  interests, 
the  old  doctrine  of  state  control  was  replaced  by  a  new 
ideal  of  economic  freedom,  the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire. 

In  the  United  States  the  new  philosophy  of  freedom  ex- 
ercised a  profound,  and  from  the  present  standpoint,  an 
even  more  lasting  influence  than  in  France  or  England. 
Coinciding  so  opportunely  with  the  political  demands  and 
movements  of  the  Revolutionary  Period,  it  was  not  only 
welcomed  with  eagerness  by  the  American  people,  but  it 
was  incorporated  in  the  organic  law  of  the  state  and  fed- 


LABOR  LAWS  463 

eral  fSfovernments,  from  which  vantage  ground  it  has  con- 
ditioned and,  in  a  negative  sense,  controlled  all  the  labor 
legislation  of  the  United  States  from  that  time  to  this. 

In  the  constitutions  of  the  federal  government  and  of 
most  of  our  commonwealths,  certain  vague  phrases  are  to 
be  found,  to  the  general  effect  that  no  person  shall  be  de- 
prived of  life,  liberty  or  property  except  by  due  process 
of  law,  or,  to  cite  typical  phrases  more  to  the  point,  (a) 
that  "citizens  may  not  be  deprived  of  the  essential  and 
inalienable  right  to  acquire,  possess  and  protect  prop- 
erty;" and  (b)  that  "the  legislature  may  not  make  any 
grant  of  special  privileges  or  immunities  to  any  citizen  or 
class  of  citizens. ' '  These  vague  phrases  have  universally 
been  interpreted  to  enunciate  a  constitutional  right  to 
freedom  of  contract  and  a  constitutional  inhibition  of 
class  legislation.  The  representatives  of  the  people  can 
not,  in  general,  by  anything  short  of  an  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  deprive  an  adult 
citizen  of  the  freedom  to  buy  and  sell  labor  freely,  or  regu- 
late the  conditions  of  employment  of  any  special  class  of 
the  adult  population,  if  in  the  opinion  of  the  courts,  the 
regulation  might  naturally  and  reasonably  be  applied  to 
the  whole  population.  Of  course,  this  imperfect  state- 
ment of  the  two  doctrines  does  not  exhaust  the  subject. 
The  courts  have  been  generous  with  the  legislative  branch 
of  the  government,  permitting  a  large  amount  of  class 
legislation,  and  extensive  limitations  of  the  freedom  of 
contract,  when  such  legislation  and  limitation  seemed  to 
them  just  and  reasonable.     But  the  presumption  is  al- 


464  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ways  against  class  legislation,  and  always  in  favor  of 
freedom  of  contract,  and  so  strong  are  these  presumptions, 
that  American  labor  legislation  is  easiest  explained  and 
best  understood  as  a  collection  of  exceptions  to  these  gen- 
eral rules.  With  these  principles  firmly  in  mind  we  can 
understand  how  the  labor  law  has  been  enabled  to  go  as 
far  as  it  does,  and  why  it  has  gone  no  further. 

Although  the  doctrine  of  free  contract  was  incorpo- 
rated into  the  constitutional  law  of  the  United  States 
and  rapidly  became  supreme  in  English  political  phi- 
losophy, in  neither  country  was  it  ever  thoroughly  en- 
forced in  practice.  Legislation  in  behalf  of  the  employer 
was  never  followed  by  a  period  of  non-interf erence  in 
which  the  state  merely  kept  the  ring  and  let  capital  and 
labor  fight  it  out;  it  has  been  succeeded  instead  by  state 
protection  of  the  working  classes.  In  1802,  before  the 
statute  of  apprentices  was  formally  repealed,  the  first 
child  labor  law  was  passed  in  England,  having  as  its 
principal  object  the  preservation  of  the  health  and  morals 
of  pauper  children  employed  in  cotton  factories.  From 
this  humble  beginning  the  protection  of  the  state  was 
gradually  extended  to  "young  people"  and  other  textile 
industries  (1833),  then  to  women  (1844),  next  to  all  large 
industries  (1864),  then  to  the  smaller  workshops  gen- 
erally (1867),  and  finally  in  1878  blossomed  out  into  a 
full-fledged  factory  act,  regulating  industry  generally  in 
behalf  of  the  health  and  safety  of  the  laboring  population. 

The  development  of  the  English  law  on  labor  combina- 
tions is  even  more  significant.     The  old  Combination  Acts, 


LABOR  LAWS  465 

which  made  labor  organizations  positively  criminal,  were, 
it  will  be  remembered,  repealed  in  1824.  But  for  many- 
years  thereafter  such  combinations  were  negatively  il- 
legal :  that  is  to  say,  the  courts  regarded  them  as  agree- 
ments in  restraint  of  trade,  and  refused  to  countenance 
them  by  enforcing  their  contracts  or  in  any  way  extend- 
ing to  them  the  protection  of  the  law.  It  was  even  be- 
lieved that  because  of  this  taint,  trade  unions  had  no  pro- 
tection against  the  embezzlement  of  their  funds  by  treas- 
urers, secretaries  and  other  administrative  officers. 

In  the  Trade  Union  Act  of  1871  (as  amended  in  1876) 
the  government  turned  its  back  squarely  upon  the  old  his- 
torical policy  of  disapprobation,  and  entered  upon  a 
policy  of  positive  encouragement  which  scarcely  has  a 
parallel  in  the  law  of  associations.  Thereafter,  no  trade 
union  was  to  be  considered  illegal  merely  because  it  was  in 
restraint  of  trade,  the  funds  of  trade  unions  were  afforded 
ample  protection,  and  in  return  for  the  simple  obligation 
of  filing  with  the  registrar  of  trade  unions  a  copy  of  their 
by-laws  and  certain  simple  statistical  statements,  the 
unions  secured  the  right  to  be  represented  by  trustees,  and 
through  them  to  hold  property,  do  business,  and  maintain 
suits  at  law  concerning  the  property  or  claims  of  the 
union.  On  the  other  hand  the  unions  were  wholly  relieved 
of  the  ordinary  corporate  responsibilities  towards  their 
own  members,  and  the  courts  were  forbidden  to  entertain 
suits  concerning  the  breach  of  any  agreement  to  provide 
benefits  to  members,  etc.  In  short,  trade  unions  were  en- 
80 


466  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

dowed  with  most  of  the  powers  and  few  of  the  response 
bilities  of  ordinary  corporations.^ 

In  the  Conspiracy  and  Protection  of  Property  Act  of 
1875,  these  special  privileges  were  indefinitely  expanded 
by  a  clause  repealing  the  old  law  of  conspiracy  in  trade 
disputes  between  employers  and  workmen.  Combinations 
of  tenants'  and  other  parties  might  still  be  punished  as 
criminal  conspiracies  even  though  the  action  which  they 
performed  would  be  perfectly  legal  when  performed  by 
an  individual.  But  strikes,  trade  unions  and  labor  boy- 
cotts w^ere  put  in  a  class  by  themselves,  and  this  special 
protection  of  the  laboring  classes  sounds  the  keynote  of 
labor  legislation  both  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  during  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  movement  has  not  been  so  uninterrupted  and  un- 
equivocal in  the  United  States,  but  even  here  the  history 
of  labor  legislation  is  one  long  tortuous  record  of  special 
pW'otection  to  the  working  classes,  secured  by  subtle  limita- 
tion and  frank  disregard  of  the  doctrines  of  free  contract 
and  class  legislation.  The  movement  began  apparently 
about  the  third  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  the 
abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt  and  the  passage  of 
laws  giving  mechanics  and  artisans  a  prior  lien,  covering 
the  value  of  their  labor,  upon  buildings  constructed  and 
work  done  by  them.  Educational  legislation  for  minors 
was  next  adopted,  Massachusetts  passing  a  law  for  the 

^  An  even  more  favorable  status  has  been  conferred  upon  trade  unions 
by  the  law  of  1893  exempting  trade  union  funds  from  the  payment  of 
the  Income  tax,  and  by  an  act  passed  in  1904,  the  detailed  provisions  of 
which  I  have  been  unable  to  secure. 

^■See  the  celebrated  case  of  Queen  r.  Parnell,  14  Cox,  C.  L.,  508. 


LABOR  LAWS  467 

instruction  of  youths  in  manufacturing  establishments,  as 
early  as  1836 ;  and  this  was  quickly  followed  in  a  few 
other  states  by  child  labor  legislation  limiting  the  hours 
of  labor  of  very  young  children  employed  in  factories. 
The  agitation  for  the  legal  limitation  of  the  working  day, 
particularly  for  women,  was  incessant  in  the  more  thickly 
populated  states  during  the  forties,  and  in  1849  Pennsyl- 
vania passed  a  ten  hour  law  for  women  and  children  in 
six  important  factory  industries.  But  in  general  nothing 
noteworthy  was  accomplished  until  1866,  when  Massa- 
chusetts passed  a  typical  child  labor  law ;  and  three  years 
later  there  was  established  in  the  same  state,  the  first  of 
those  labor  bureaus  which  have  since  been  introduced 
with  such  useful  results  in  most  of  the  countries  of  the 
civilized  world.  In  1874  Massachusetts  passed  her  fa- 
mous ten-hour  law,  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  of  women 
and  of  all  persons  under  eighteen  years  of  age  employed 
in  manufacturing  establishments,  to  ten  per  day.  In 
1877,  the  same  state,  wiiich  has  paved  the  way  for  most 
American  labor  laws,  passed  an  act  for  the  inspection  of 
factories,  that  has  since  been  copied,  with  later  amend- 
ments and  amplifications,  in  about  twenty- four  states  (in 
1903). 

2.  The  Factory  Acts:  The  nature  of  the  American  fac- 
tory acts  is  well  described  in  the  following  quotation  from 
Mr.  F.  J.  Stimson's  digest  of  American  labor  laws : 

*'In  all,  about  half  the  States  have  so  far  passed  what  may  be  called  a 
factory  ae*  that  is,  laws  for  the  regulation,  mainly  sanitary,  of  conditions 
in  factories  and  workshops^  These  include  most  of  the  States  which  have 


468  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

dealt  at  all  by  statute  with  the  limitation  of  hours  of  labor;  the  Ne^ 
England  States  grenerally.  New  York,  and  the  Northern  Central  and  North- 
western States  following  its  legislation.  There  are  almost  no  factory  acts 
in  the  South  [Tennessee  is  an  exception]  nor  in  the  purely  agricultural 
States  of  the  West,  but  these  st.-itutes  are  being  passed  rapidly,  and, 
moreover,  in  States  where  they  have  already  been  enacted,  are  being 

amended  every  year The  States  adopting  such  legislation  have 

usually  created  one  or  more  factory  inspectors,  charged  with  the  duty  of 
seeing  that  the  statutes  are  carried  out,  generally  with  powers  to  enter 
personally  or  by  deputy,  and  to  inspect  all  factories  at  any  time.  Acci- 
dents must  be  promptly  reported  to  such  inspectors.  The  most  usual 
statutes  are  those  making  provision  for  proper  fire  escapes;  or  against  the 
use  of  explosive  oils,  etc.;  for  the  removal  of  noxious  vapors  or  dust  by 
fans  or  other  contrivances;  requiring  guards  to  be  placed  about  dangerous 
machinery,  belting,  elevators,  wells,  air-:-hafts,  crucibles,  vats,  etc;ji£Qr 
viding  that  doors  shall  open  outward;  prohibiting  the  machinery  from 
being  cleaned  while  in  motion  by  any  person  (very  many  of  the  States 
provide  that  machinery  shall  not  be  ileaned  by  women  or  minors  under  a 
certain  age) ;  requiring'  mechanical  belt  shifters,  etc. ;  requiring  connection 
by  bells,  tubes,  etc.,  between  any  room  where  machinery  is  used  and  the 
engine  room;  laws  requiring  a  certain  amount  of  cubic  air  space  in  fac- 
tories (or  other  statutes  to  prevent  over-crowding)  and  secure  sanitary 
conditions  generally;  requiring  walls  to  be  limed  or  painted;  laws  pro- 
viding specially  for  decency  on  the  part  of  the  operatives,  such  as  laws 
requiring  separate  toilet  rooms;  laws  requiring  screened  stairways  or 
handrails  on  stairways.  Finally,  there  are  many  statutes  regulating  the 
construction  of  buildings,  providing  for  railings  upon  scaffolds,  and  for 
suitable  scaffolds  generally Employers  are  frequently  per- 
mitted or  required  to  ring  bells  and  use  whistles  in  towns  and  cities  for 
the  purpose  of  waking  their  employees,  or  giving  them  other  notice."  * 

3.  Laws  Regulating  the  Hours  of  Labor:  The  gradual 
growth  of  the  factory  acts  affords  a  striking  illustration 
of  the  increasing  tendency  of  the  state  to  extend  special 
protection  to  the  working  classes.  Their  introduction, 
however,  was  never  seriously  hampered  by  legal  or  con- 
stitutional difficulties,  since  they  constitute  a  plain  and 
unequivocal  exercise  of  the  police  power— a  social  right 
inherent  in  the  representatives  of  the  people,  arising  out 
of  the  primal  necessity  of  protecting  the  public  health  and 
safety,  which  is  even  more  fundamental  than  the  indi- 

*  F.  J.  Stlmson  in  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission  (1900),  Vol, 
V,  pp.  100-101. 


LABOR  LAWS  469 

vidual  rigfht  to  bny  and  sell  labor  freely.  The  laws  regu- 
lating the  hours  of  labor,  however,  seem  more  inconsistent 
with  the  doctrine  of  free  contract ;  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  latter  doctrine  has  been  interpreted,  modified 
and  limited  in  order  to  admit  of  their  enforcement,  is  ex- 
tremely significant  of  the  character  and  strength  of  the 
modern  demand  for  the  protection  of  the  working  classes. 
These  laws  are  of  several  distinct  varieties,  (a)  Those 
regulating  the  hours  of  women  and  children  have  been  dis- 
cussed in  Chapter  II.  The  constitutionality  of  the  child 
labor  laws  has  never  been  questioned,  since  for  certain 
purposes  the  state  is  supposed  to  occupy  the  position  of 
guardian  towards  minors  and  other  persons  non  sui  juris, 
and  is  not  only  empowered  but  charged  with  the  duty  of 
protecting  them. 

(b)  So  also  there  has  been  no  serious  question  of  the 
constitutionality  of  the  laws  passed  by  many  states,  fixing 
the  length  of  the  legal  working  day  in  the  absence  of  spe- 
cial contract  between  the  employer  and  wage-earner. 
Many  of  these  laws  particularly  provide  that  the  employee 
is  entitled  to  extra  pay  for  over  time,  but  they  have 
proved  ineffective  for  two  reasons.  First,  the  employee 
will  be  assumed  to  have  impliedly  contracted  for  a  longer 
day,  if  such  is  the  usual  custom  of  the  trade  or  of  the  em- 
ployer in  question  ;  and  secondly,  such  laws  can  be  utilized 
by  a  workingman  only  after  he  has  thrown  up  his  job  and 
definitely  determined  to  antagonize  his  employer.  To  be 
most  serviceable  all  such  laws  must  be  preventive  as  well 
as  remedial. 


470  LABOR  PROBLEMS  ^ 

(c).  The  federal  government  and  about  fifteen  states 
have  passed  laws  fixing  the  hours  of  labor— usually  at 
eight  per  day — of  laborers  and  mechanics  employed  by 
the  government  or  by  private  contractors  doing  public 
work.  Most  of  the  state  laws  apply  to  municipalities, 
some  of  them  prescribing  merely  the  kind  of  contract 
which  the  municipality  may  make,  others  imposing  a  fine 
upon  any  contractor  who  works  his  men  for  longer  time, 
except  in  cases  of  emergency.  Such  laws  have  been  held 
unconstitutional  in  Ohio,  Illinois,  California,  New  York 
and  probably  in  other  states ;  but  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  has  recently  sustained  the  Kansas  eight- 
hour  laws,  in  a  case  involving  all  the  features  which  in 
the  adverse  decisions  referred  to  above,  were  deemed  most 
objectionable  and  harmful.  The  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court^  will  not  necessarily  change  the  opinion  of  the 

^  This  decision  (Atkin  r.  Kansas,  191  U.  S.,  207)  may  be  found  in 
Bulletin  of  the  (U.  8.)  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  .50,  pp.  177-181.  The  Kan- 
sas eight-hour  laws  not  only  fix  the  hours  of  labor,  but  provide  that  the 
prevailing  rate  of  wages  shall  be  paid,  and  impose  a  penalty  of  fine  or 
imprisonment  upon  any  public  official  or  contractor  violating  these  pro- 
vislons.  Tender  these  laws,  W.  W.  Atkin,  a  contractor  working  for  Kan- 
sas City,  wa,s  fined  $100  by  the  Kansas  courts,  for  requiring  one  George 
Reese  to  work  ten  hours  a  day  at  the  current  rate  of  wages.  The  Su- 
preme Court  sustained  the  whole  proceeding,  in  the  most  unequivocal 
terms,  declaring  that  municipal  corporations  are  the  creatures  of  the 
State,  which  may  abridge,  control  or  wholly  destroy  their  powers  ;  that 
whether  such  statutes  are  mischievous  or  beneficial  is  a  question  of  pub- 
lic policy  to  be  decided  by  the  legislature:  and  that  the  contractor's 
freedom  of  contract  was  not  in  question  :  "It  cannot  be  deemed  a  part 
of  the  liberty  of  any  contractor  that  he  be  allowed  to  do  public  work  in 
any  mode  he  may  choose  to  adopt,  without  regard  to  the  wishes  of  the 
State.  On  the  contrary,  it  belongs  to  the  State,  as  the  guardian  and 
trustee  for  its  people,  and  having  control  of  its  affairs,  to  prescribe  the 
conditions  upon  which  it  will  permit  work  to  be  done  on  its  behalf,  or 
on  behalf  of  its  municipalities.  *  *  *  And  no  contractor  for  public 
work  can  excuse  a  violation  of  his  agreement  with  the  State  by  doing 
that  which  the  statute  under  which  he  proceeds  distinctly  and  lawfully 
forbids  him  to  do." 


LABOR  LAWS  471 

state  courts,  but  it  will  undoubtedly  exercise  a  great 
moral  influence  upon  them,  and  encourage  legislation  de- 
signed to  regulate  wages  and  other  conditions  of  employ- 
ment upon  public  works.  Thus  the  Court  of  Appeals  of 
New  York,  since  the  Kansas  decision,  has  reversed  several 
earlier  decisions  by  sustaining  the  right  of  the  state  to 
regulate  the  wages  of  persons  employed  directly  by  munic- 
ipalities,^ and  in  1905  the  people  of  New  York  will  vote 
upon  a  proposed  constitutional  amendment,  which  has 
twice  passed  the  legislature,  giving  the  legislature  power 
to  fix  all  conditions  of  labor  on  public  works,  whether 
sublet  to  contractors  or  not.  Several  municipalities,  it 
may  be  noted  in  passing,  have  attempted  to  accomplish 
the  same  ends,  by  ordinances  requiring  that  public  work 
shall  be  performed  by  union  labor,  or  that  certain  sup- 
plies shall  bear  the  union  label,  but  these  ordinances  have 
uniformly  been  declared  unconstitutional  when  ques- 
tioned in  the  higher  courts. 

(d) .  Another  method  of  limiting  freedom  of  contract  is 
illustrated  in  the  laws  passed  in  about  fifteen  states,  which 
limit  the  hours  of  railway  employees  to  ten  or  twelve  per 
day,  or  provide  that  such  employees  shall  not  work  more 
than  twelve,  fifteen  or  twenty-four  continuous  hours 
without  an  intermediate  rest,  usually  of  eight  hours.  So 
far  as  such  regulations  are  plainly  adapted  and  in  good 
faith  designed  to  protect  the  health  and  safety  of  the 

1  Ryan  V.  City  of  New  York.  177  N.  Y.  Rep.,  271.  See  New  York 
Labor  Bulletin  for  March,  1904,  pp.  48  54. 


472  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

general  puhlic,  they  constitute  a  perfectly  valid  exercise 
of  the  police  power. 

(e).  But  can  the  legislature  regulate  the  hours  of  labor 
in  private  industries  for  the  purpose  of  protecting,  not 
the  public  health  and  safety,  but  the  health  and  safety  of 
adult  workers  in  these  occupations  ?  First  of  all  it  may 
be  said  that  the  legislature  cannot  limit  the  hours  of  labor 
of  adults  generally,  or  in  occupations  where  long  continu- 
ous labor  is  neither  dangerous  nor  unhealthf ul ;  and,  ac- 
cordingly, the  Nebraska  law  of  1891  requiring  double  pay- 
ment for  all  work  in  excess  of  eight  hours  a  day  except  in 
the  case  of  farm  and  domestic  labor,  was  annulled  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  that  state.  But  after  a  large  number 
of  seemingly  adverse  opinions,  it  has  now  been  fully  es- 
tablished that  the  legislature  may  limit  the  hours  of  labor 
of  adult  men  in  mines,  smelters,  bakeries  and  other  occu- 
pations especially  dangerous  to  the  health  of  the  em- 
ployees. 

This  was  settled  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  famous  case  of  Holden  v.  Hardy,^  in  which 
the  Court  recognized,  to  quote  its  own  words,  "that  the 
law  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  progressive  science ;  *  *  that 
restrictions  which  had  formerly  been  laid  upon  the  con- 
duct of  individuals,  or  of  classes  of  individuals,  have 
proved  detrimental  to  their  interests,  while,  upon  the 
other  hand,  certain  other  classes  of  persons  (particularly 

*May  be  conveniently  found  in  Bulletin  of  the  (U.  S.)  Department  of 
Labor,  No.  17,  pp.  625-637.  It  should  be  noted  that  this  decision  Is  not 
binding  upon  the  state  courts  ;  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  Colorado  has 
annulled  a  law  similar  to  that  upheld  in  Holden  .v.  Hardy. 


LABOR  LAWS  47? 

those  engaged  in  dangerous  or  unhealthful  emploj^ments) 
have  been  found  to  be  in  need  of  additional  protection." 
And  the  court  continued,  after  recognizing  that  such 
legislation  is  wholly  in  keeping  with  the  ordinary  factory 
laws  protecting  the  life  and  limb  of  employees:  "The 
legislature  has  also  recognized  the  fact,  which  the  expe- 
rience of  legislators  in  many  states  has  corroborated,  that 
the  proprietors  of  these  establishments  and  their  opera- 
tives do  not  stand  upon  an  equality,  and  that  their  inter- 
ests are,  to  a  certain  extent,  conflicting.  The  former 
naturally  desire  to  obtain  as  much  labor  as  possible  from 
their  employees,  while  the  latter  are  often  induced  by  the 
fear  of  discharge  to  conform  to  regulations  which  their 
judgment,  fairly  exercised,  would  pronounce  to  be  detri- 
mental to  their  health  or  strength.  In  other  words,  the 
proprietors  lay  down  the  rules  and  the  laborers  are  prac- 
tically constrained  to  obey  them.  In  such  cases  self- 
interest  is  often  an  unsafe  guide,  and  the  legislature  may 
properly  interpose  its  authority." 

Laws  regulating  the  hours  of  labor  in  underground 
mines  and  smelters  have  since  been  passed  in  eight  other 
states,  and  in  Colorado  a  constitutional  amendment  has 
been  adopted  which  authorizes  general  legislation  of  this 
kind.  The  New  York  ten-hour  law  of  1895  applying  to 
bakers  and  confectioners,  has  just  been  sustained  by  the 
highest  court  of  that  state.^  In  New  Zealand,  it  may  be 
interesting  to  note,  the  factory  acts  were  applied  to  adult 

•  People  V.  Lochner,  177  N.  Y.  Rep.,  145. 


474  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

men  in  1901,  thus  making  the  compulsory  eight-hour  day 
universal  among  the  laboring  population. 

4.  Regulation  of  Wage  Payment:  The  subtle  legal  de- 
vices which  have  proved  so  effective  in  limiting  the  hours 
of  labor,  have  utterly  failed  when  applied  to  the  problem 
of  wage  payment ;  and  a  large  number  of  laws,  cordially 
endorsed  by  the  most  conservative  economists  and  care- 
fully designed  to  secure  the  prompt  payment  of  wages  or 
to  protect  wage-earners  against  company  stores,  have  been 
annulled  or  emasculated  by  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the 
doctrines  of  free  contract  and  class  legislation.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  discuss  this  legislation  in  great  detail,  (a) 
A  number  of  states  have  passed  laws  providing  for  the 
weekly  or  bi-weekly  payment  of  wages,  and  most  of  these 
laws  prohibit  "contracting  out" — an  obviously  necessary 
accompaniment  if  the  laws  are  to  be  effective.  These 
laws  have  been  generally  declared  unconstitutional  when 
questioned,  except  where  they  apply  to  corporations  only 
and  the  constitution  of  the  state  permits  the  modification 
of  corporate  charters  by  special  law.  The  corporation 
being  a  creature  of  the  state  would  seem  to  be  logically 
subject  to  modification  and  control  by  the  legislature,  par- 
ticularly in  the  case  of  companies  incorporated  after  the 
enactment  of  such  regulations. 

(b).  Precisely  the  same  fate  has  befallen  the  laws 
passed  in  about  twenty-three  states  prohibiting  the  en- 
forced dealing  at  company  stores,  or  the  payment  of 
wages  in  script,  store  orders,  etc.,  the  evil  effects  of  which 
are  generally  admitted.     Where  these  laws  are  uniform 


LABOR  LAWS  475 

in  their  application  the  logic  of  the  adjudicated  cases 
would  seem  to  render  them  invalid,  as  interfering  with 
the  freedom  of  contract.  Where  their  operation  has  been 
confined  to  particular  industries,  such  as  mining  and 
manufacturing,  they  have  been  declared  unconstitutional 
as  class  legislation.  The  powerlessness  of  the  legislature 
between  the  two  horns  of  this  dilemma  is  obvious.  An 
anti-truck  law  has  been  sustained  in  Indiana,^  (in  a  deci- 
sion distinctly  repudiated  in  several  other  states),  and 
these  laws  are  probably  constitutional  when  applied  to 
corporations  only,  in  states  which  (unlike  Illinois)  per- 
mit the  amendment  of  corporate  charters  by  special  law. 
But  any  general  law  abolishing  the  nuisance  of  truck 
payment  is  utterly  impossible.  In  recent  years  a  partial 
remedy  has  been  secured  in  laws  providing  that  store- 
orders  and  script — in  which  many  companies  pay  their 
employees— must  be  cashed  on  sight  or  at  thirty  days' 
notice  at  their  face  value ;  and  these  laws  have  been  sus- 
tained in  several  important  decisions.^  But  they  offer 
no  real  remedy  for  the  evil  of  truck  payments,  because 
they  can  be  utilized  by  the  wage-earner  only  at  the  cost  of 
antagonizing  his  employer  and  thus  losing  his  position. 
The  suppression  of  the  truck  system  must  apparently  be 
brought  about  in  the  United  States  by  the  trade  union. 

5.  Other  Protective  Laws:  The  American  statute 
books  are  filled  with  legislation  conferring  upon  the  labor- 

*  Even  in  Indiana,  a  weekly  wage  law  has  recently  been  declared  un- 
constitutional. See  Republic  Iron  and  Steel  Co.  v.  State.  Bulletin  of 
the  (U.  8.)  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  48.  pp.  1118-1120. 

'Bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  No.  40,  pp.  619-621. 


476  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ing  classes  special  protection  of  various  kinds,  (a)  Take 
the  enforcement  of  the  labor  contract.  The  courts  of 
equity  will  compel  the  performance  of  all  other  contracts, 
under  proper  conditions ;  but  the  labor  contract  is  placed 
in  a  unique  class  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  no  court  will 
enforce  its  execution,  even  though  the  remedy  which  is 
left  to  the  employer— suit  for  damages— is  likely  to  be 
useless  because  of  the  fact  that  the  average  wage-earner 
has  no  means  with  which  to  pay  damages.^  (b)  Notwith- 
standing this  fact,  practically  every  state  in  the  union 
exempts  the  laborer's  wages  from  attachment  or  execu- 
tion for  debt ;  although  in  most  states  the  exemption  is 
limited  to  $50  or  $100,  or  a  month's  wages,  and  a  few 
states  confine  the  exemption  to  workingmen  who  have  a 
family  to  support.  This  class  legislation  is  justified  on 
the  ground  that  the  power  of  attachment  is  a  staj^utory 
privilege  conferred  by  the  legislature,  not  an  inherent 
right  of  the  creditor,  and  consequently  may  be  withdrawn 
in  whole  or  part  at  the  discretion  of  the  legislature,  (c) 
On  the  other  hand,  the  wage-earner  and  mechanic  are 
made  preferred  creditors  in  practically  every  state  of  the 
union,  and  debts  due  for  labor  rendered  or  materials  fur- 
nished must  be  satisfied  in  full  next  after  taxes  and  gov- 
ernment claims,  in  the  settlement  of  the  estates  of  de- 
ceased persons,  bankrupts,  etc.  The  constitutionality  of 
these  laws  has  seldom  been  questioned,  and  Mr.  Stimson 

*  See  Stlmson's  Handbook,  pp.  29-30.     The  writer  desires  to  acknowl- 
edge his  general  Indebtedness  to  this  valuable  work. 


LABOR  LAWS  477 

believes  that  they  "must  rest  either  upon  the  police  power 
or  on  the  precedent  of  the  bankruptcy  acts. ' ' 

Recognizing  that  along  certain  lines  it  is  impossible  to 
evade  or  explain  away  the  doctrines  of  free  contract  and 
class  legislation,  our  state  legislatures  have  endeavored  to 
protect  the  laboring  population  indirectly,  by  encourag- 
ing and  fostering  trade  unions,  (d)  The  federal  govern- 
ment and  nearly  all  the  states  have  passed  laws  permit- 
ting either  specifically  or  inferentially,  the  incorporation 
of  labor  organizations ;  but  the  utter  freedom  from  regu- 
lation or  inspection  which  the  unincorporated  American 
union  enjoys,  has  up  to  this  time  prevented  the  incorpo- 
ration of  unions  in  any  considerable  number,  (e)  And 
seventeen  or  eighteen  states  have  passed  acts  declaring  it 
unlawful  for  employers  to  discharge  workmen  for  joining 
labor  organizations,  or  to  make  it  a  condition  of  employ- 
ment that  they  shall  not  belong  to  labor  organizations. 
Laws  of  this  kind  have  been  sustained  in  Ohio,  and  an- 
nulled in  Wisconsin,  Missouri,  Kansas  and  other  states, 
but  the  prevailing  opinion  is  that  they  are  unconstitu- 
tional, (f)  Trade  unions  also  are  now  protected  in  the 
use  of  the  union  label  in  most  states,  and  a  penalty  of  fine 
or  imprisonment  or  both  is  imposed  for  counterfeiting  it. 
(g)  Finally,  labor  organizations  are  specifically  ex- 
empted in  a  number  of  states  from  the  operation  of  the 
anti-trust  acts  (although  such  exemption  has  been  held 
to  annul  the  whole  law)  ;  and  in  their  practical  execution 
the  anti-trust  laws  have  been  directed  against  combina- 
tions of  employers  in  restraint  of  trade,  rather  than 


478  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

against  the  combinations  of  employees,  which  are  equally 
in  restraint  of  trade. 

6.  Employers'  Liahility:  We  shall  not  try  to  account 
historically  for  the  interesting  facts  that  in  the  last  half- 
century  the  working  population  has  been  accorded  a  vast 
amount  of  special  protection,  and  our  constitutional  law 
has  been  fundamentally  altered  to  make  way  for  the  new 
system.  Possibly  the  change  is  but  one  manifestation  of 
the  power  of  the  new  democracy,  a  sign  of  the  transfer  of 
political  control  from  the  classes  to  the  masses.  But  we 
are  concerned  with  the  essential  character  and  meaning 
of  the  new  movement,  and  nowhere  are  they  more  dis- 
tinctly expressed  than  in  that  department  of  labor  law 
which  deals  with  the  responsibility  and  compensation  for 
accidents  happening  to  workmen  in  the  performance  of 
their  work. 

The  common  law  upon  the  subject  may  be  briefly  stated 
as  follows  :^  The  employer  is  under  obligation  to  provide 
his  workmen  with  a  reasonably  safe  place  in  which  to 
work,  with  reasonably  safe  machinery  and  with  reason- 
ably prudent  and  competent  fellow-servants;  and  the 
employer  is  liable  in  damages  (a)  for  any  accident  to  the 
workmen  resulting  from  failure  to  display  this  ordinary 
prudence  and  care,  as  well  as  (b)  from  the  similar  failure 
or  negligence  of  any  superintendent,  overseer  or  other 
vice-principal  authorized  to  issue  orders  in  his  name, 
(c)  Moreover,  the  emploj^er  cannot  divest  himself  of  this 
liability  by  contract  made  with  a  workman  before  the 

»  See  Bulletin  of  the  (U.  S.)  Department  of  Lalor,  No.  31,  p.  1157flf. 


LABOR  LAWS  479 

accident  occurs.  The  employer,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  not 
charged  with  the  duty  of  providing  the  latest  safety  de- 
vices, or  excessively  expensive  guards  and  protections :  he 
is  required  to  observe  only  the  ordinary  precautions  of  a 
reasonably  prudent  man.  These  precautions  having 
been  taken,  (d)  the  employee  assumes  all  the  risks  and 
hazards  incident  to  the  employment  or  (e)  arising  out  of 
the  carelessness  and  negligence  of  fellow-servants  (as 
distinguished  from  vice-principals),  and  is  not  entitled  to 
recover  damages  for  injury  resulting  therefrom-  Final- 
ly, even  though  the  employer  has  been  negligent,  the 
employee  can  not  recover  damages  (f)  if  he  was  aware 
of  the  remissness  of  the  employer  and  accepted  the  ex- 
traordinary risk— volenti  non  fit  injuria;  or  (g)  if  he 
himself  has  been  guilty  of  additional  or  contributory 
negligence. 

Conceived  wholly  as  a  problem  between  man  and  man, 
concerning  itself  with  the  apportionment  of  blame  and 
responsibility  for  industrial  accidents  between  employer 
and  employee,  the  common  law  upon  this  subject  seems  to 
the  writer  substantially  just.  From  this  standpoint 
there  appears  no  good  reason,  for  instance,  why  the  em- 
ployer should  be  mulcted  heavily  in  damages— as  he  often 
is  by  sympathetic  juries— for  injuries  resulting  to  an 
employee  from  the  negligence  of  another  or  co-employee. 
If  anybody  is  to  blame,  it  is  the  negligent  employee,  and 
that  he  is  usually  without  means  wherewith  to  pay  for 
the  damage  he  has  done,  is  the  misfortune  of  the  injured 
employee,  not  the  fault  of  the  employer.     Nevertheless, 


480  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

the  popular  mind  seems  to  lean  strongly  toward  the  viev^ 
that  the  wage-earning  classes  suffer  a  gross  injustice  from 
the  fellow-servant  doctrine  (e),  and  the  doctrines  of  as- 
sumption of  risk  (f),  and  contributory  negligence  (g), 
described  above ;  and  at  the  present  time  statutes  have 
been  passed  in  about  twenty-seven  states  modifying  the 
common  law. 

These  statutes  are  of  three  main  types,  (h)  In  a 
large  number  of  states  they  simply  describe  the  duties  of 
the  employer  in  protecting  the  life  and  limb  of  his  em- 
ployees, and  give  a  right  of  action  to  thr  employee  when 
he  is  injured  through  the  failure  of  the  employer  to  obey 
the  law,  or  to  the  widow,  children  or  other  representative 
of  the  employee,  when  he  is  killed  through  such  failure. 
This  formal  legal  enactment  of  the  duties  of  the  em- 
ployer is  not  wholly  superfluous,  since  it  has  been  inter- 
preted in  many  courts  to  deprive  the  employer  of  the 
defence  of  assumption  of  risk,  and  in  some  courts,  of  the 
defence  of  contributory  negligence.  With  his  duties  de- 
scribed in  black  and  white  on  the  statute  books,  the  em- 
ployer cannot  escape  responsibility  for  disobeying  the 
law  by  pleading  that  his  employee  was  aware  of  the  dis- 
obedience. 

(i)  A  large  number  of  states,  also,  have  repealed  the 
fellow-servant  doctrine  with  regard  to  railway  em- 
ployees. The  general  tenor  of  these  statutes  is  well  ex- 
pressed by  the  Georgia  law  passed  in  1856  : 

"Railroad  companies  are  common  carriers  and  liable  as  such.  As  such 
companies  necessarily  have  many  employees  who  cannot  possibly  control 
those  who  should  exercise  care  and  diligence  in  the  running  of  trains,  sucb 


LABOR  LAWS  481 

companies  shall  be  liable  to  such  employees  us  to  passengers,  for  injuries 
arisinsr  from  the  want  of  such  care  and  diligence" 

(j)  In  very  recent  years  a  small  number  of  progressive 
states  have  extended  the  principle  embodied  in  the  rail- 
way legislation  mentioned  above,  and  have  passed  gen- 
eral laws  which  seriously  modify  the  fellow-servant  doe- 
trine  in  all  mechanical  industries.  The  Massachusetts 
law  will  serve  as  example.  This  act,  passed  in  1887, 
makes  the  employer  liable  for  injuries  caused:  (a)  by 
any  defect  in  ways,  works  or  machinery  arising  from  the 
neglect  of  the  employer  or  of  any  employee  charged  with 
the  duty  of  seeing  that  such  ways  and  works  were  in 
proper  condition ;  (fi)  by  the  negligence  of  any  superin- 
tendent entrusted  with  and  exercising  superintendence; 
(y)  by  any  employee  who  has  charge  of  any  signal, 
switch,  locomotive  engine  or  train  upon  a  railroad. 
When  an  employee  is  thus  injured,  while  thus  exercising 
due  care  and  diligence,  he  may  recover  damages  not  in 
excess  of  $4,000 ;  and  where  death  results,  the  widow,  next 
of  kin  or  legal  representative  may  recover  damages  not  in 
excess  of  $5,000.  Ordinarily  actions  for  damages  can  not 
be  instituted  under  this  law,  unless  the  employer  has  been 
duly  notified  of  the  accident  within  60  days  of  its  occur- 
rence, and  actions  must  be  commenced  within  one  year  of 
the  same  time.  The  law,  it  may  be  added,  does  not  apply 
to  injuries  caused  by  fellow-employees  to  domestic  serv- 
ants or  farm  laborers. 

The  social  philosophy  underlying  the  common  law  of 
employers'  liability  is  extremely  significant.  It  regards 
31 


482  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

accidents  as  avoidable  and  unavoidable.  The  loss  and 
trouble  which  result  from  the  unavoidable  accidents- 
constituting  what  is  called  in  Europe  the  "occupational 
risk"— are  shouldered  upon  the  employee  on  the  theory 
that  he  will  anticipate  them  when  he  makes  the  wage 
contract,  and  will  demand  higher  wages  for  greater  risks. 
The  avoidable  accidents  are  of  three  kinds,  due  respect- 
ively to  the  carelessness  of  the  employer,  the  victim  him- 
self, or  a  fellow-employee.  In  the  second  ease,  of  course, 
the  victim  has  no  redress,  but  in  the  other  two  cases  he 
may  hale  the  wrongdoer  into  court  and  secure  compensa- 
tion for  the  injury  by  a  civil  action.  This  right  of  action, 
however,  is  obviously  useless  except  in  the  small  percent- 
age of  cases  in  which  the  employer  is  at  fault.  But  it  is 
an  essential  part  of  the  old  theory,  that  an  unsparing  ap- 
plication of  the  fellow-servant  doctrine  will  force  em- 
ployees to  exercise  a  ceaseless  surveillance  over  one 
another,  and  thus  reduce  the  number  of  accidents  to  a 
minimum. 

Experience  has  shown,  to  borrow  a  medical  figure,  that 
this  diagnosis  of  the  evil  is  wrong,  and  that  the  remedies 
offered  are  wholly  ineffectual.  In  Europe,  careful  sta- 
tistical studies  of  the  responsibility  for  industrial  acci- 
dents have  been  made,  which  are  summed  up  in  the  table 
on  page  484.^  From  this  it  appears  that  considerably 
more  than  50  per  cent,  of  such  accidents  are  due,  in  the 
long  run,  to  third  parties  or  the  ordinary  occupational 


^  Taken  from  the  admirable  study  in  the  Ftrrrnteenth  Report  of  the 
(New  York)  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  pp.  G57,  787  and  1144. 


LABOR  LAWS  483 

risk,  and  for  such  injuries  the  compensation  is  supposed 
to  accrue  to  the  workmen  in  the  form  of  a  wage  surplus. 
When  we  examine  wages  in  the  dangerous  and  unhealth- 
ful  occupations,  however,  no  trace  of  this  indemnification 
for  occupational  risk  is  discovered.  The  ten  industries 
or  occupations  in  which  accidents  are  most  frequent,  ac- 
cording to  the  German  experience  of  1897,  were :  vehicle 
driving,  grist  mills,  packing  and  despatch,  mines,  quar- 
ries, excavating,  wood,  interior  navigation,  breweries, 
building.^  "With  the  possible  exception  of  the  last  two, 
these  are  poorly  paid  trades.  Nerve  and  skill  and  intelli- 
gence will  be  paid  for,  but  mere  health,  life  and  limb  are 
offered  in  inexhaustible  supplies,  and  so  far  as  any  gen- 
eral rule  can  he  discerned  it  seems  to  work  rather  the 
other  way:  except  where  the  danger  is  horrifying  and 
dramatic— as  in  deep-sea  diving  or  steeple  climbing, — the 
fouler,  the  more  unhealthful  and  more  dangerous  the 
occupation,  the  lower  the  rate  of  wages. 

According  to  the  following  table,  it  is  seen  that  about  25 
per  cent,  of  industrial  accidents  are  due  to  the  negligence 
of  the  victims  themselves.  Under  the  old  law,  the  suffer- 
ings and  poverty  of  these  unfortunates  (and,  it  may  be 
added,  of  their  wives,  children  and  dependents)  were 
supposed  to  be  a  punishment  for  their  own  carelessness. 
But  this  carelessness,  we  are  now  beginning  to  realize,  is 
often  due  to  the  mere  stress  and  strain  under  which  mod- 
ern factory  operatives  work,  as  is  indicated  by  reliable 

1  In  op.  cit.  p.  769.  Ranked  on  a  basis  of  the  indemnified  accidents. 
The  order  differs  from  year  to  year,  but  the  utter  absence  of  any  cor- 
relation with  wages  is  always  noticeable. 


'484 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 

PERCENTAGE  OF   INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 


Due  to 

Germany 

Austria 

Agricul- 
ture (1891) 

Mining 
and  Manu- 
facturing 
(1887) 

Mining 
(1885-1895) 

(50,000 

('ases 

1890-1894) 

Fault  of  employer  .  .  . 

,  Fault  of  victim 

Fault  of  both 

Fault  of  third  person  . 

Occupational  risk  .  .  . 

Indeterminate  and  un- 
known  

18.2 
24.4 
20.1 
2.8 
32.3 

2.2 

19.8 

25.6 

4.4 

3.3 

43.4 

3.5 

1.3 
29.8 

4.3 
64.3 

0.3 

1.4 
25.8 

1.6 
70.2 

1.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

statistics  which  show  that  accidents  are  much  more  fre- 
quent in  the  last  hour  of  work  than  in  the  remainder  of 
the  working  day.  And,  as  we  might  expect,  our  Amer- 
ican statistics  of  accidents— such  as  they  are— show  no 
sign  that  this  fastening  of  responsibility  upon  the  em- 
ployees themselves  has  made  accidents  more  infrequent. 
Some  slight  decrease  is  noticeable  in  the  proportion  of 
fatal  accidents  among  railway  employees,  but  in  other 
industries,  and  in  the  proportion  of  non-fatal  accidents 
among  railway  employees,^  no  improvement  is  percep- 
tible; although  the  increasing  regulation  of  factories, 
mines  and  railroads  would  have  worked  with  the  common 
law— had  the  common  law  been  working  in  this  direction 
— to  diminish  the  frequency  of  accidents. 

*  See  f^tatistics  of  Railways  und^r  "Railway  Accidents,"  and  W.  F. 
Wllloughby  In  Bulletin  of  the  (V.  8.)  Department  of  Labor,  No.  32,  ppi 
8,  16-18. 


LABOR  LAWS  485 

Returning  again  to  the  statistics  of  the  causes  of  indus- 
trial accidents,  it  was  found  that  about  20  per  oent.  in 
Germany,  1  per  cent,  in  Austria,  and  12  per  cent,  in  Eng- 
land might  be  fairly  charged  to  the  negligence  of  the 
employer.  These  injuries,  under  the  old  law,  are  sup- 
posed to  be  indemnified  by  suitable  damages  secured 
through  law  suits.  It  is  only  necessary  to  mention  this 
remedy,  in  order  to  call  attention  to  its  unsuitability. 
The  ordinary  civil  action  is  costly,  prolonged  and  fatally 
uncertain.  Only  a  small  proportion  of  the  injured  work- 
men have  the  intelligence,  enterprise  and  means  to  insti- 
tute such  suits,  and  a  much  smaller  proportion  possess  the 
resources  and  perseverance  necessary  to  carry  them  to  a 
successful  issue.  On  the  other  hand,  when  these  cases  are 
conducted  by  professional  accident  attorneys,  sympa- 
thetic juries  frequently  grant  damages  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  losses  suffered  by  the  workmen;  and  the 
remedy,  which  to  many  injured  workmen  is  utterly  use- 
less, frequently  becomes  to  the  employers  a  source  of 
worry,  irritation  and  troublesome  litigation. 

This  problem  has  been  discussed  in  some  detail,  not 
only  because  the  law  of  employers'  liability  is  in  one 
aspect  the  most  important  branch  of  labor  law,  but  be- 
cause our  American  commonwealths,  in  defiance  of  expe- 
rience and  foreign  leadership,  have  blindly  persisted  in 
an  attempt  to  meet  a  grave  industrial  evil  by  modifying 
an  old  law,  based  upon  the  assumptions  that  when  an  acci- 
dent happens  somebody  is  to  blame,  and  that  the  best  way 
of   preventing   accidents   is   to  make  the  blameworthy 


486  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

parties  bear  the  consequences  of  their  negligence.  The 
facts  cited  above  show  that  this  theory  is  wholly  beside 
the  question;  not  so  much  unjust  as  totally  inapplicable. 
The  government  of  course  should  compel  both  employ- 
ers and  employees  to  take  every  possible  precaution  against 
accident,  by  positive  law,  and  every  infraction  of  this  law 
should  lead  to  criminal  indictment,  not  civil  action. 
Even  when  this  has  been  accomplished,  however,  there 
will  inevitably  occur— with  men  and  machinery  as  they 
actually  are— a  very  large  number  of  industrial  accidents. 
For  instance,  if  accidents  were  relatively  as  numerous  in 
the  United  States  in  1900  as  in  Germany— and  they  were 
probably  much  more  numerous— more  than  10,000  Amer- 
ican workmen  were  killed  at  their  work ;  68,000  were  dis- 
abled for  life ;  55,000  were  temporarily  disabled  for  more 
than  thirteen  weeks,  and  400,000  were  incapacitated  for 
more  than  three  days  but  less  than  thirteen  weeks. ^  Such 
accidents,  if  unindemnified,  lead  to  unemployment  and 
poverty,  and  these  in  turn  multiply  and  breed  the  very 
imprudence  and  disregard  of  life  which  cooperate  with 
industrial  conditions  to  create  the  evil.  Experience, 
therefore,  seems  to  show  plainly  that  the  wage-earning 
classes  are  not  able  to  secure  indemnity  for  accidents  in 
the  manner  contemplated  by  the  common  law,  and  that 
the  lack  of  indemnification  leads  to  a  grave  social  evil 
which  tends  to  expand  and  increase  under  a  regime  of 
free  contract.     But  it  is  unfair  to  demand  this  indemnity 


'  Estimates  given   in  the  Seventeenth  Report  of  the  (New  York)  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  l^tatistics,  pp.  557-558. 


LABOR  LAWS  487 

either  from  the  emploj'ers  or  the  employees.  As  the  acci- 
dents arise  largely  from  the  necessities  of  modern  indus- 
try, the  cost  of  protection  should  be  made  a  charge  upon 
industry,  to  be  borne  by  the  consumer,  as  other  costs  of 
production  are  borne,  in  the  form  of  higher  prices. 

7.  Workmen's  Compensation  Acts:  These  truths  have 
been  fully  accepted  in  most  countries  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  the  law  of  employers '  liability  has  been  super- 
seded by  workmen 's  compensation  acts,  which  compel  the 
employer  to  indemnify  his  workmen  for  every  injury  not 
caused  by  the  drunkenness  or  wilful  misconduct  of  the 
victim  himself.  The  compensation  is  fixed  and  definite, 
though  usually  adjusted  to  the  seriousness  of  the  accident, 
the  period  of  incapacity  and  the  number  of  persons  de- 
pendent upon  the  victim.  In  most  cases,  payment  must 
be  made  in  the  form  of  a  pension,  and  in  order  to  insure 
the  certain  payment  of  these  pensions  and  protect  bene- 
ficiaries against  the  bankruptcy  of  employers,  the  latter 
are  in  many  countries  compelled  to  take  out  accident  in- 
surance for  their  employees  either  with  private  companies 
or  the  state  itself.  It  becomes  comparatively  easy  to  pro- 
vide such  insurance  when  the  compensation  for  accidents 
is  fixed  and  certain.  The  general  provisions  of  these  laws 
are  summed  up  in  a  compact  tabular  statement,  prepared 
by  Mr.  A.  F.  Weber  and  published  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
(U.  S.)  Department  of  Labor  for  May,  1902,  which  the 
reader  is  advised  to  consult. 

In  1902  the  State  of  Maryland  adopted  a  full-fledged 
accident  insurance  law.     Its  provisions  were  extremely 


488  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

interesting.  First,  it  proceeded  to  throw  the  responsi- 
bility for  accidents  upon  the  employer  by  boldly  abolish- 
ing the  fellow  servant  doctrine  and  modifying  the  doc- 
trine of  contributory  negligence.  Having  provided  em- 
ployers  with  a  motive  for  accepting  the  following  alterna- 
tive, it  then  offered  to  exempt  them  from  the  special 
liability  created  by  the  act,  on  the  condition  that  they 
would  deposit  monthly  with  the  insurance  commissioner, 
a  certain  insurance  premium  for  each  employee,  gradu- 
ated according  to  the  risks  of  the  occupation.  From  the 
insurance  fund  thus  created,  the  insurance  commissioner 
was  authorized  to  pay  $1,000  to  the  widow  or  other  de- 
pendents of  any  insured  employee  who  was  killed  in  the 
prosecution  of  his  trade  or  calling.  Unfortunately,  the 
insurance  commissioner  was  authorized  to  bring  within 
the  operation  of  the  act  any  industry  which  he  deemed 
prudent,  and  exempt  any  company  from  the  operation  of 
the  act,  which  in  his  opinion  was  making  better  and  more 
generous  provision  for  their  workmen  through  relief  asso- 
ciations or  other  methods  of  private  insurance,  than  they 
would  make  by  complying  with  the  insurance  provisions 
of  the  act  itself.  This  clause  was  the  undoing  of  the  law. 
A  Baltimore  court  declared  the  law  unconstitutional,  on 
the  grounds  that  it  gave  the  insurance  commissioner  judi- 
cial powers,  and  deprived  individuals  of  the  right  of  trial 
t>y  jury.     So  perish  American  labor  laws ! 

8.  Compulsory  Insurance:  All  of  the  fundamental  ar- 
guments upon  which  the  policy  of  compulsory  insurance 
against  accident  rest,  apply  with  redoubled  force  to  com- 


LABOR  LAWS  489 

pulsory  insurance  against  sickness  and  old  age.  To  be 
sure,  the  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  compulsory 
insurance  against  old  age  and  sickness  are  much  greater 
than  those  which  beset  the  practical  administration  of 
compulsory  accident  insurance.  But  the  need  for  the 
former  kind  of  insurance  is  correspondingly  greater. 
Careful  students  of  statistics  have  shown  that  in  Eng- 
land, at  least,— to  quote  Mr.  Booth's  words— "two  out  of 
every  five  men  and  women  who  live  to  be  sixty-five  are 
destined  under  existing  circumstances  to  become  charge- 
able to  the  poor  rates."  Students  of  poverty  agree  that 
sickness  and  old  age  cause  many  times  as  much  poverty 
as  industrial  accidents.  Students  of  trade  unions  and 
friendly  societies  admit  that  a  large  majority  of  the  wage- 
earning  population— even  in  countries  like  England  and 
France,  where  voluntary  insurance  has  reached  its  high- 
est development— do  not  belong  to  any  society  which  can 
safely  be  trusted  to  protect  them  against  sickness  and  old 
age.  In  short,  the  conviction  is  slowly  spreading  through- 
out the  civilized  world  that,  taking  human  nature  and 
wages  as  they  are,  a  large  majority  of  wage-earners  can 
not  save  enough  to  maintain  themselves  during  the  tem- 
porary and  protracted  periods  of  disability  which  result 
from  disease  and  old  age ;  and  that  if  anything  adequate 
is  to  be  done  to  relieve  this  misery  and  wretchedness,  it 
must  be  done  by  the  state. 

It  may  be  entirely  impossible  for  the  state  to  solve  the 
problem ;  let  us  not  prejudge  this  question.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  let  us  be  entirely  frank  about  the  alternative 


490  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

remedies  of  educating  the  masses  to  protect  themselves  by 
saving,  and  of  eliminating  the  improvident  by  a  complete 
abstention  from  any  interference  with  the  struggle  for 
existence.  The  work  of  education  must  be  a  work  of 
centuries,  the  experience  in  France  leaves  no  doubt  of 
that  fact.^  And  the  extinction  of  the  unfit  by  unlimited 
competition  is  a  pure  fiction.  It  never  takes  place.  In- 
dividuals are  starved  to  death  by  a  slow  process  of  under- 
feeding, without  doubt,  and  many  thousands  annually 
send  themselves  to  premature  graves  by  drink,  reckless- 
ness and  dissolute  living.  But  their  children — the  class 
—survive.  Poverty  breeds  poverty ;  it  is  cumulative,  not 
self-eliminating;  and  this  is  the  fatal  fact  which  makes 
the  extinction  of  the  unfit  utterly  inapplicable  as  a 
remedy. 

The  realization  of  these  truths  has  been  followed  in 
foreign  countries  by  a  practical  movement  for  protection 
against  sickness  and  old  age,  whose  importance  can 
scarcely  be  exaggerated.  Germany  led  the  way  in  the 
eighties,  under  the  guidance  of  Bismarck,  and  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  requires  compulsory  insurance  against  sickness, 
accident,  invalidity  and  old  age  for  nearly  all  classes  of 


^  Since  about  1850  France  has  consistently  encouraged  voluntary  in- 
surance by  maintaining  National  Insurance  Baniss,  and  by  subsidizing 
and  encouraging  the  voiuntary  mutual  aid  societies.  The  state  bani^s 
and  voluntary  societies  work  in  harmony,  and  the  good  they  do  is  very 
great  :  but  even  in  France,  at  the  present  time,  a  large  majority  of 
wage-earners  are  uninsured  against  sickness  and  old  age.  Beginning  In 
1845,  Prussia  (and  later  the  German  Empire)  made  an  even  more  ear- 
nest effort  to  solve  the  problem  through  the  gilds  and  trade  clubs,  but 
the  effort  was  futile,  though  much  good  was  done.  See  Willoughby, 
Workingmcn's  Insurance,  ch.  IV;  and'  Fourth  Special  Report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Lahor^  pp.  31-40. 


LABOR  LAWS  491 

workmen  earning  less  than  2,000  marks  a  year  (3,000 
marks  in  the  case  of  accident  insurance).  Austria  has 
compulsory  insurance  against  accidents  and  sickness  for 
many  of  the  most  important  classes  of  wage-earners,  and 
compulsory  old-age  insurance  for  miners ;  while  France, 
in  addition  to  the  workmen's  compensation  act  summar- 
ized in  Dr.  Weber's  table,  has  compulsory  old  age  and 
sick  insurance  for  miners  and  seamen ;  and  Iceland  has 
compulsory  insurance  against  old  age  for  servants  and 
day  laborers.  Denmark,  Belgium,  New  Zealand,  Vic- 
toria and  New  South  Wales  have  endeavored  to  meet  the 
problem  of  "the  aged  poor,"  by  granting  old  age  pen- 
sions to  necessitous  persons  over  65  years  of  age  (60  in 
Denmark)  who  have  led  respectable  lives,  and  who  are 
believed  to  deserve  assistance  less  humiliating  in  nature 
than  the  ordinary  poor  relief,  from  which  these  pensions 
are  quite  sharply  distinguished.  Finally,  most  of  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  France,  Italy  and  Belgium  in 
particular,  have  endeavored  to  stimulate  thrift  and  provi- 
dence of  a  voluntary  sort,  by  providing  state  insurance, 
particularly  against  old  age  and  invalidity,  through  state- 
managed  banks  or  funds,  which  are  enabled,  because  of 
large  grants  from  the  public  funds,  to  offer  the  most  gen- 
erous terms  to  workingmen. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  here  even  the  outlines  of 
these  systems,  much  less  to  discuss  their  practical  opera- 
tion, or  the  relative  merits  of  state  encouragement,  state 
insurance,    and   state   pensions.^     This   much,    however, 

■•  For  convpnient  sources  of  informntion  upon  these  topics,  sec  the 
bibliographical  note  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


492  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

may  be  said  about  the  working  of  compulsory  insurance 
and  old  age  pensions.  Both  these  systems  have  now  been 
in  operation  for  more  than  ten  years,  and  there  is  no  indi- 
cation that  they  will  break  down  from  sheer  complexity 
or  difficulty  of  administration.  They  are  perfectly  prac- 
ticable from  this  standpoint.  On  the  other  hand,  both 
systems  are  still  on  trial.  In  Germany,  there  has  been  an 
immense  amount  of  malingering  or  playing  sick,  and  it  is 
still  a  question  whether  this  abuse  will  not  ultimately 
destroy  the  system  of  sick  insurance,  although  in  very 
recent  years  the  alarming  increase  in  the  proportionate 
number  of  cases  and  days  of  sickness  has  been  checked. 
In  Australia,  also,  the  old  age  pension  has  been  abused, 
and  in  a  number  of  cases  propert.y  has  been  transferred 
by  old  people  to  their  children  in  order  that  a  pension 
might  be  secured.  Yet  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  abuse 
of  the  law  has  been  widespread  either  in  Denmark  or 
Australia.  Whether  these  schemes  w'ill  prove  practi- 
cable or  not,  remains  to  be  seen,  but  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
in  those  countries  where  the  state  has  actually  enforced 
insurance  against  sickness,  or  old  age,  the  discussion  has 
ceased  to  concern  itself  with  ^'laissez  fairc,"  "free  con- 
tract," and  "the  proper  sphere  of  the  state,"  and  has 
turned  upon  the  merits  and  demerits  of  concrete  schemes 
of  reform.  The  question  is  no  longer  whether  compul- 
sory insurance  is  desirable,  but  is  compulsory  insurance 
practicable?  "Call  it  socialism  or  whatever  you  like," 
said  Bismarck  in  the  debate  which  preceded  the  introduc- 
tion of  compulsory  insurance  against  sickness  in  Ger- 


LABOR  LAWS  493 

many,  "it  is  the  same  to  me."     Terms  are  not  material. 

9.  Minimum  Wage  Laws:  In  his  study  of  poverty  in 
York,  Mr.  Rowntree,  it  will  be  remembered,  found  that 
low  wages— low  7'atcs  of  wages  as  distinguished  from  in- 
adequate earnings  due  to  sickness  or  irregular  employ- 
ment— were  responsible  for  about  one-half  the  cases  of 
primary  poverty ;  and  whether  this  specific  proportion  be 
exact  or  not,  there  is  a  general  agreement  that  low  wages 
must  be  classed  with  old  age,  sickness,  drink  and  irregu- 
lar employment,  as  one  of  the  five  great  causes  of  poverty. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  w^orking  people  in  what  we 
know  as  the  sweated  trades,  together  with  most  married 
day  laborers  in  many  countries  of  the  world,  do  not  earn 
enough,  even  when  they  have  fairly  regular  work,  to  pro- 
vide their  families  at  all  times  with  the  food,  shelter  and 
clothing  required  to  maintain  mere  physical  efficiency; 
and  for  this  state  of  affairs  the  labor  organization  offers 
no  relief,  since  labor  organizations  have  never  proved 
successful  among  agricultural  laborers,  in  most  of  the 
sweated  trades,  and  among  women  and  child  laborers 
generally.  In  Great  Britain  itself,  where  labor  organiza- 
tion has  reached  the  most  complete  development,  official 
estimates  have  never  placed  the  percentage  of  organized 
wage-earners  above  25  per  cent.,  even  in  those  lines  of 
industry  in  which  organization  is  known  to  be  possible. 

Those  industries  wiiich  do  not  pay  a  living  wage  have 
been  aptly  called  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  The  Parasitic 
Trades,  because  they  constitute  a  positive  drain  upon 
society  at  large.     A  large  proportion  of  their  workers 


494  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

consists  of  women  and  children  who  are  partiallj  sup- 
ported by  fathers,  husbands  and  brothers  employed  in 
other  work ;  another  section  of  their  workers  consists  of 
people  who  are  constantly  in  receipt  of  poor  relief ;  while 
in  periods  of  sickness  and  old  age,  probably  a  majority  of 
these  workers  become  a  burden  upon  private  and  public 
charity.  Whether  anything  can  be  done  to  remedy  this 
state  of  affairs  or  not,  it  is  very  plain  that  these  industries 
are  actually  subsidized  by  indirect  bounties  paid  by  so- 
ciety as  a  whole.  In  any  particular  industry,  the  unscru- 
pulous employer  who  contrives  to  emplov  the  largest 
number  of  women  and  children  and  pay  them  the  lowest 
wages,  has  an  enormous  advantage  over  his  competitors. 
But  the  same  principle  applies  to  the  whole  industrial 
system  as  well.  The  industry  that  can  get  along  with 
women  and  children  has  a  similar  advantage  over  other 
industries  in  which  the  employers,  either  from  necessity 
or  desire,  employ  adult  male  workers  and  pay  them  living 
wages. 

These  parasitic  industries  may  thus  thrive  and  flourish 
when  other  industries,  owing  to  foreign  competition  or  to 
the  obstinate  maintenance  of  the  standard  of  living  by 
trade  unions,  find  it  impossible  to  produce  goods  at  a 
profit.  They  not  only  prevent  the  children  they  employ 
from  learning  the  more  skilled  trades,  and  wreck  the 
health  of  both  women  and  children  by  their  unsanitary 
conditions  and  long  hours  of  labor,  but,  it  seems,  they 
exercise  an  enormous  power  over  the  distribution  of  the 
labor  force  of  a  nation,  drawing  into  relatively  undesir* 


LABOR  LAWS  495 

able  industries,  the  capital  and  labor  that  would  other- 
wise go  into  trades  and  callings  where  skill  is  perfected, 
character  strengthened,  and  punctuality,  steadiness  and 
reliability  cultivated.  In  short,  to  bring  to  a  close  an 
analysis  that  might  well  be  expanded  into  a  whole  book, 
the  regulation  of  wages  is  demanded  in  the  parasitic  in- 
dustries, not  only  because  the  wages  which  they  pay  are 
directly  responsible  for  an  immense  amount  of  poverty, 
but  because  their  existence  constitutes  a  drain  upon  so- 
ciety and  a  hindrance  to  the  most  beneficial  division  of 
labor.  In  other  words,  the  parasitic  industries  must  be 
made  to  bear  their  fair  share  of  the  cost  of  production, 
just  as  every  industry  should  be  made  to  bear  its  fair 
share  of  the  damages  resulting  from  unavoidable  indus- 
trial accidents. 

It  was  a  realization  of  this  fact,  probably  unconscious, 
which  led  the  Parliament  of  Victoria,  in  1896,  to  insert 
clauses  in  the  Factories  and  Shop  Acts  of  that  year,  pro- 
viding for  the  election  of  joint  boards  of  employers  and 
employees  in  certain  sweated  trades  of  Melbourne  and  the 
immediate  vicinity,  having  power  to  fix  minimum  rates 
of  wages,  maximum  hours  of  labor,  rates  of  pay  for  over- 
time, and  the  proportion  of  apprentices  and  learners,  for 
the  trade  or  industries  in  question.  In  1900  this  system 
of  wage  boards  was  extended  so  as  to  cover  practically  the 
whole  colony,  and  provision  was  made  for  their  introduc- 
tion into  any  industry  for  which  either  House  of  Parlia- 
ment passed  an  enabling  act.  In  a  few  months  the  sys- 
tem had  been  introduced  into  more  than  thirty  trades; 


496  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

and  in  December,  1900,  South  Australia  adopted  the  Vic«  i 
torian  system  in  an  even  more  complete  form,  providing 
by  general  statute— the  Factories  Amendment  Act— that 
no  person  working  in  a  factory  should  be  paid  less  than 
four  shillings  a  week. 

The  minimum  wage  system,  as  it  works  out  in  practice, 
is  essentially  similar  to  the  system  of  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion. The  wage  boards  consist  of  an  equal  number  (from 
four  to  ten)  of  employers  and  employees  elected  by  the 
masters  and  workers  in  the  industry  which  it  regulates. 
These  representatives  choose  a  chairman,  wno  has  a  decid- 
ing vote ;  and  if  members  or  chairmen  are  not  elected 
provision  exists  for  their  appointment  by  the  Governor  in 
Council.  Once  constituted,  the  board  proceeds  to  deter- 
mine minimum  rates  of  wages,  hours  of  labor,  etc.,  by  or- 
dinary collective  bargaining  between  the  representatives 
of  the  employers  and  employees ;  and  the  chairman  does 
not  interfere  unless  an  agreement  cannot  be  reached  by 
the  parties  directly  concerned.  The  award  or  ''determi- 
nation" reached  by  the  board  may  be  applied  to  anj^  class 
or  group  of  workers  in  the  industry  throughout  the  whole 
colony,  and  once  having  been  determined  it  is  enforced, 
like  any  other  factory  regulation,  by  the  ordinary  factory 
inspectors  of  the  colony.  "What  the  Victorian  law  does 
is,  in  effect,  to  compel  employers  and  workmen  to  formu- 
late, by  common  consent,  minimum  conditions  for  their 
own  trade,  which  can  be  altered  when  and  as  required, 
but  which  are  for  the  time  being  enforced  by  law.  No 
employer  is  compelled  to  continue  his  business,  or  to  en» 


LABOR  LAWS  497 

gage  any  workman  ;  but  if  he  chooses  to  do  so,  he  must,  as 
a  minimum,  comply  with  these  conditions,  in  exactly  the 
same  way  as  he  does  with  regard  to  the  sanitary  provi- 
sions of  the  Factory  Acts.  No  workman  is  compelled  to 
enter  into  employment  or  forbidden  to  strike  for  better 
terms,  but  he  is  prevented  from  engaging  himself  for  less 
than  the  minimum  wage,  exactly  as  he  is  prevented  from 
accepting  less  than  the  minimum  sanitation. ' ' 

In  discussing  compulsory  arbitration  in  New  Zealand, 
it  was  pointed  out  that  the  awards  of  the  court  of  arbitra- 
tion now  extend  not  only  to  the  particular  employer  and 
union  involved,  but  to  all  other  employers  in  the  same 
industry  throughout  the  industrial  district  for  which  the 
award  is  made ;  and  that  the  award  may  be  extended  by 
the  court  so  as  to  cover  the  particular  industry  involved, 
and  all  "related  industries"  throughout  the  whole  colony. 
The  wage  rates  and  other  conditions  of  employment  fixed 
in  these  awards  are,  under  the  provisions  of  the  present 
law,  minima.  That  is  to  say,  the  employer  may  grant 
better  conditions,  but  not  inferior  conditions.  It  becomes 
evident,  then,  that  in  their  practical  operation  the  com- 
pulsory arbitration  and  the  minimum  wage  laws  arrive  at 
much  the  same  results :  the  establishment  of  common 
rules  for  entire  industries,  by  methods  which  do  not  pre- 
vent collective  bargaining  between  organizations  of  cap- 
ital and  labor,  but,  on  the  contrary,  create  organizations 
for  certain  classes  of  labor  which,  Muder  a  regime  of  free 
contract  would  not  be  able  to  maintain  organizations  for 
themselves,  and  in  addition,  provide  a  means  of  compul- 
se 


498  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

sory  agreement  between  these  organizations  and  employ- 
ers, when,  without  the  interference  of  the  law,  they  would 
come  to  open  strife.  By  arbitration  or  wage  boards, 
minimum  wage  rates  are  now  fixed  in  New  Zealand,  New 
South  Wales,  West  Australia,  Victoria  and  South  Aus- 
tralia. 

As  in  the  case  of  compulsory  arbitration  and  old-age 
pensions,  the  experience  with  this  law  has  been  too  brief 
to  prove  anything  respecting  its  chances  of  permanent 
success.  The  law  has  been  evaded  in  some  industries, 
and  observers  seem  to  agree  that  it  has  made  it  more  diffi- 
cult for  old  men  and  incompetent  workmen  to  obtain  po- 
sitions ;  while  Judge  Backhouse,  the  impartial  and  careful 
Royal  Commissioner  delegated  by  New  South  Wales  to 
study  and  compare  the  Victorian  and  New  Zealand  sys- 
tems, plainly  favors  the  latter.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
after  the  Victorian  Factories  Act,  originallj^  passed  for  a 
limited  period  only,  was  accidentally  suspended  in  1902 
by  a  sudden  dissolution  of  the  Victorian  Parliament  be- 
fore a  continuing  act  could  be  passed,  the  indignation  was 
so  great  that  the  law  was  immediately  replaced  upon  the 

statute  books  when  the  succeeding  Parliament  assembled. 

******* 

The  radical  legislation  described  in  the  preceding  para- 
graphs is  still  on  trial,  and  no  amount  of  discussion  would 
enable  us  to  say  at  the  present  what  part  of  it  will  fail  and 
what  part  endure.  These  relevant  facts  may  be  noted, 
however. 

The  breakdown  of  the  old  system  of  labor  legislation  in 


1.AB0R  LAWS  499 

the  eighteenth  century  furnishes  no  good  reason  for  the 
belief  that  the  new  legislation  will  fail.  There  are  sev- 
eral reasons  for  this  statement.  In  the  first  place,  the  old 
restrictive  legislation  was,  broadly  speaking,  legislation  by 
an  autocratic  minority  in  behalf  of  that  minority.  It  had 
to  contend  with  the  persistent  and  growing  opposition  of 
a  large  majority  of  the  people.  In  the  second  place,  it  is 
important  to  note  that  the  old  legislation  blocked  the 
progress  of  the  working  classes  by  establishing  maximum 
conditions  of  employment,  instead  of  minimum  condi- 
tions, and  this  legislation  was  administered  by  the  very 
classes  that  least  needed  protection.  The  new  legislation, 
on  the  contrary,  fixes  minimum  conditions  on  behalf  of 
the  classes  that  most  need  protection,  and  leaves  these 
regulations  to  be  enforced  by  an  impartial  executive  in 
whose  selection  all  classes  have  a  voice. 

Secondly,  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  although  many  of  the 
old  laws  were  seldom  or  never  enforced,  many  others  were 
consistently  enforced  for  centuries,  and  most  of  them 
were  kept  on  the  statute  books  until  the  landed  gentry, 
in  whose  interests  they  had  been  passed,  began  to  lose  con- 
trol of  the  government.  It  was  only  then,  in  the  period  of 
revolutionary  economic  and  political  changes,  that  the 
doctrine  of  laissez  faire  appeared.  The  old  laws  were 
partially  successful,  then,  so  long  as  the  government  was 
sympathetic,  even  though  they  conflicted  wath  the  inter- 
ests of  the  masses.  The  new  laws  have  a  much  greater 
chance  of  success  because  they  can  never  be  passed  until 
they  have  the  support  of  the  majority,  and  they  will  iheu 


500  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

be  enforced  by  a  government  thoroughly  in  sympathy 
with  their  aims  and  objects. 

Another  general  consideration  which  it  is  important  to 
notice,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  this  radical  legislation 
does  not  even  tend  to  check  that  competitive  struggle  for 
existence  upon  which  so  much  is  believed  to  depend. 
What  it  does  is  merely  ''to  concentrate  competition  upon 
efficiency."  The  German  employer  who  must  pay  one- 
half  of  the  old  age  insurance  premiums  of  his  employee, 
takes  good  care  that  the  employee  is  worth  the  expendi- 
ture. If,  as  under  the  South  Australian  factories  act,  a 
boy  helper  can  not  be  hired  for  less  than  four  shillings  a 
week,  the  employer  must  confine  his  employment  of  boys 
to  those  who  are  worth  the  wage.  What  a  law  of  this  kind 
does  is  to  put  competition  on  a  free  and  level  basis,  give 
the  fair  employer  an  even  chance  with  the  unscrupulous 
sweater,  and  bend  the  energies  of  both  towards  the  dis- 
covery of  the  efficient  worker,  not  the  worker  who  can  be 
forced  to  accept  the  lowest  wage  because  his  necessities 
are  pressing.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  when,  after 
1900,  the  Victorian  wage  law  was  extended  from  six  to 
some  thirty  odd  industries,  the  application  of  the  law  to 
many  of  the  new  industries  was  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
more  progressive  employers  themselves. 

References  :  The  labor  laws  of  all  the  states  were  collected  In 
1896  and  published  with  a  large  number  of  court  decisions  in  the  Sec- 
ond Special  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  (2d  ed.).  The  lawa 
passed  since  that  time,  together  with  the  court  decisions  on  labor  ques- 
tions, may  be  found  in  the  Bulletins  of  the  Department,  now  the  Bureau 
of  Labor.  A  thorough  discussion  of  American  labor  law  will  be  found 
In  Stimson's  Handbook  to  the  Labor  Law  of  the  United  States  (189G), 
which  is  brought  down  to  1900  In  the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Com,' 


LABOR  LAWS  501 

mission.  Vol.  V.  The  labor  laws  of  nil  the  important  foreign  countries 
are  discussed  in  a  comprehensive  way  in  a  seriea  of  articles  by  W.  F. 
Willoughby  in  BuUeiin  of  the  Department  of  Labor  Nos.  25-30  ;  and 
the  best  source,  perhaps,  for  foreign  laws  is  the  Annuaire  de  la  legisla- 
tion du  travail  issued  (since  1S97)  by  the  Belgian  Office  du  Travail.  On 
workingmen's  insurance  see  the  Thirty-First  Attnual  Report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  statistics  of  Labor,  Wliloughby's  Working- 
men's  Insurance,  and  the  Fourth  Special  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  which  contains  a  bibliography.  For  employers' 
liability  and  accident  insurance  see  Hulhtin  of  the  Department  of 
Labor,  No.  31  ;  Birrel,  Law  of  Employers'  Liability  ;  and  the  Seventeenth 
Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  For  a 
comprehensive  and  readable,  but  partisan,  description  of  Australian 
legislation  see  Reeves,  State  Experiments  in  Australia  and  Neto  Zea- 
land. H.  C.  Adams'  The  Relation  of  the  State  to  Industrial  Action  and 
Economics  and  Jurisprudence  still  remain  the  most  suggestive  dlscus- 
Blons  of  the  philosophy  of  this  subject ;  while  Miss  Whitteisey's  Massa- 
chusetts Labor  Legislation  provides  an  admirable  study  in  the  specific 
social  effects  of  labor  legislation,  and  contains  an  excellent  bibliog- 
raphy. 

Supplementary  Readings  : 

1.  Development  and  Effect  of  Labor  Legislation  : 

(a)  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  "The  Origin  of  Factory  Legisla- 
tion," A  History  of  Factory  Legislation,  ch.  1,  pp.  1-13. 

(ft)  Wright,  The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States,  ch. 
XXI-XXIII.   pp.    264-292. 

(c)  Whlttelsey,  "Economic  Effects,"  Massachusetts  Labor  Leg- 

islation, ch.   II,   pp.   3.5-69. 

(d)  Ibid.,  "Effects  Other  Than  Economic,"  ch.  Ill,  pp.  70-78. 

2.  Workingmen's  Insurance : 

(a)  Willoughby,  "The  Problem,"  Workingmen's  Insurance,  ch. 

I,  pp.  1-28. 

(b)  Brooks,    "Origin   and   Development   of   Compulsory    Insur- 

ance," Fourth    Special    Report  of  the  Commissioner    of 
Labor,  pp.  19-50. 

(c)  "General  Review  of  the  Problem  of  Industrial  Accidents," 

Seventeenth  Annual  Report  of  the  (New  York)  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics,  pp.  1143-1162. 

(d)  Farnam,   "Psychology  of  German   Workmen's   Insurance," 

Yale  Review,  Vol.  13,  pp.  98-113. 

3.  Radical  Legislation  In  Australia  and  New  Zealand  : 

(a)  Clark,    "Labor   Conditions    in    New    Zealand,"    Bulletin   of 

the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  49.  pp.  1176-1257. 

(b)  Reeves,   "The  Minimum  Wage  Law  In  Victoria  and  South 

Australia."    State   Experiments   in    Australia    and   New 
Zealand,  Vol.  II,  pp.  47-69. 

4.  "Principles   of   Industrial    Legislation,"    Jevons,    The  State  in 

Relation  to  Labor,  ch,  I,  pp.  1-32. 


CHAPTER  Xin 

THE    MATERIAL    PROGRESS    OF    THE    WAGE-EARNING 

CLASSES 

In  the  preceding  chapters  some  account  has  been  given 
of  the  evils  which  afflict  the  working  classes,  and  the' 
agencies  which  operate,  or  are  supposed  to  operate,  to  mit- 
igate these  evils.  At  this  point  we  are  naturally  led  to 
inquire :  have  the  conditions  of  employment  and  the  ma- 
terial comfort  of  the  working  classes  really  improved 
since  the  introduction  of  the  factory  system  and  the  birth 
of  the  modern  labor  problem  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  answer  this  question  here  in  terms  as 
definite  and  comprehensive  as  those  in  which  it  is 
couched.  If  in  the  last  hundred  years  wages  were  in- 
creased one  hundred  per  cent.,  the  hours  of  labor  dimin- 
ished twenty-five  per  cent.,  and  the  working  classes  sup- 
plied with  certain  articles  of  dress  and  household  con- 
venience which  kings  and  princes  lacked  a  century  ago; 
shall  we  conclude  that  the  working  classes  are  richer  or 
poorer  in  the  essential  attributes  of  human  happiness,  if 
it  be  admitted  that  the  strain  and  intensity  of  labor  have 
indefinitely  increased,  and  the  death  rates  from  suicide 
and  nervous  diseases  have  more  than  doubled  ?  This  not 
altogether  absurd  statement  of  the  problem  will  illustrate 
how  inextricably  it  is  interwoven  with  psychological  and 

502 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        503 

moral  questions,  the  consideration  of  which  is  beyond  the 
scope  of  this  work  ;  but  as  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  take 
these  factors  into  account  in  aiming  at  any  correct  judg- 
ment, the  task  of  accounting  for  them  must  be  left  to  the 
reader.  The  most  that  can  be  done  here  is  to  adduce  some 
of  the  more  important  economic  data  bearing  upon  the 
subject.  With  this  preliminary  warning  we  may  plunge 
in  medias  res. 

1.  History  of  Wages:  No  phase  of  the  economic  prog- 
ress of  the  working  classes  is  more  important  than  that  of 
wages,  and  upon  this  subject,  fortunately,  we  have  data 
which,  although  not  complete,  prove  with  substantial  cer- 
tainty that  the  wage  earner  has  made  a  marked  and 
reasonably  steady  advance  since  the  settlement  of  Amer- 
ica. In  dealing  with  this  topic,  prices  will  be  treated 
together  with  wages,  in  order  that  some  idea  may  be  se- 
cured of  the  purchasing  power  of  the  money  wage. 

During  the  seventeenth  century,  while  the  early  colon- 
ists were  settling  and  clearing  the  wilderness,  wages,  as  we 
should  expect,  were  very  low,  and  prices  very  high.  The 
colonists  had  little  money  with  which  to  hire  people 
to  Avork  for  them,  and  there  had  not  yet  been  sufficient 
development  of  the  great  resources  of  the  country  to  bring 
prices  down.  In  ]\Iassachusetts,  masons,  tailors,  mas- 
ter carpenters,  and  skilled  workmen  generally  seem  never 
to  have  earned  more  than  $2  a  week ;  and  the  prices  of 
necessities  were  about  as  high,  all  things  considered,  as 
they  are  to-day.  A  skilled  laborer  made,  in  a  week's 
work,  only  enough  to  buy  about  four  bushels  of  com, 


TABLE  I 


Wages  and  Prices  in  Massachusetts  in  the  17th  Centura 


Year 

Basis 

Wages 

1630 

Day 

$.223 

1633 

.333 

1633 

.195 

1672 

.333 

1630 

.167 

1630 

.167 

1630 

.083 

1633 

.25 

1633 

.111 

1672 

.209 

1672 

.278 

1672 

.833 

1630 

.228 

1633 

.333 

1633 

.195 

1672 

.333 

1630 

.167 

1672 

.333 

1633 

.167 

1672 

.278 

1633 

.111 

1672 

.167 

Occupations 


master    workmen 
master    workmen 


Carpenters  and    joiners,    master    workmen 

(with  board) 

Carpenters    and  joiners, 

(without  board)  .... 

Carpenters  and    joiners, 

(with  board) 

Carpenters  and    joiners,    master    workmen 

(March  1  to  October  10) 
Carpenters  and  joiners,    inferior  workmen 

(with  board)  , 

Laborers . 

(with  board)  . 

(best)  

(best,  with  board) 

(from  October  1  to  April  1) 

(from  April  1  to  July  1).  .....  . 

(from  July  1  to  Oct.  1  (with  board; 
Masons  and   bricklayers,    master   workmen 

(with  board) ,  . 

Masons 

"       (with  board) 

"       (March  1  to  October  1) 
Masons  and  bricklayers,   inferior  workmen 

(with  board) 

Stone  layers  (March  1  to  October  10).  . 
Tailors,  master  workmen,  (with  board) 

"        (12  hours  per  day) 

"        inferior  workmen  (with  board) 
' '        apprentices,  first  four  years  .  . 


COJIMODITIES 

Years 

Basis 

Prices 

Barley,  average  price  in  18   years 
between. 

1640  and  1690 

Bu. 

$.691 

Barley,  malt,  average  price  in  12 
years  between 

1658    " 

1694 

.663 

Corn,    average    price    in    8  years 
between 

1642    " 

1694 

.481 

Corn,   Indian,  average  price  in   17 
years  between 

1635    " 

1688 

.551* 

Oats,    average   price    in    6    years 
between 

1680    " 

1694 

.259 

Peas,   average  price    in    19    years 
between 

1640    " 

1694 

.617 

Rye,    average    price    in    21    years 
between 

1640    " 

1694 

1 

.458 

Wheat,  summer  average  in  21  vears 

1640   " 

1694 

.815 

Shoes,  men's,  sizes  eleven  and  twelve 

1672 

Pr. 

.833 

"      women's,  sizesseven  and  eight 

16' 

~2 

"        .611! 

MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        505 

between  three  and  four  bushels  of  peas,  or  between  two 
and  three  bushels  of  wheat.  Two  and  a  half  days'  work 
was  required  to  earn  enough  to  buy  a  pair  of  rough 
shoes.  The  scanty  data  which  we  have  upon  this  period 
may  be  found  in  convenient  form  in  the  Sixteenth  An- 
nual Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
Labor  (pages  428-430),  from  which  Table  I,  page  504, 
has  been  compiled,  in  order  to  furnish  some  suggestion  of 
the  miserable  pay  and  bare  life  of  the  Massachusetts 
wage-earner  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  course  of  wages  during  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  is  very  obscure  and  nothing  definite 
or  general  can  be  asserted  concerning  it.  From  the  im- 
mediately following  tables,  which  give  some  scattered 
data  concerning  wages  and  prices  in  Masaschusetts  after 
1752,  it  may  be  inferred  that  wages  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  slightly  higher  than  they  were  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  while  owing  to 
the  increasing  population  and  capital  in  the  country,  it 
was  probably  somewhat  easier  to  obtain  foodstuffs  and  the 
other  necessities  of  life  than  it  had  been  in  the  preceding 
century.  There  are  some  indications  that  there  were  no 
great  or  sudden  changes  in  wages  up  to  the  Revolutionary 
War,  but  we  are  certain  that  after  the  war  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  present  national  government,  a  strong 
upward  movement  of  wages  and  prices  took  place,  which 
continued  until  the  industrial  depression  of  1818-1819. 

The  table  on  page  506  indicates  how  great  and  steady 
was  the  rise  in  wages  between  the  creation  of  the  national 


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MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        50? 

government  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  In  every 
occupation  for  which  data  is  ^'iven  in  the  decades  1791- 
1800  and  1851-1860,  the  wage  is  very  much  higher  in  the 
latter  period ;  and  in  every  occupation  cited  the  wage  is 
higher  in  the  last  decade  than  in  the  decade  in  which  it 
was  first  cited.  Of  course  there  were  interruptions  in 
this  steady  advance  of  nominal  wages,  as  in  the  industrial 
depressions  of  1819,  1837  and  1857  ;  but  they  were  seldom 
severe  or  prolonged  enough  to  reduce  the  average  for  any 
decade  below  that  of  the  preceding  decade.  In  the 
following  table  a  summarized  statement  of  the  movement 
of  prices  is  given,  which  seems  to  show  that  from  1790 
until  1820,  taking  even  dates,  the  rise  in  wages  was  offset, 
and  may  have  been  more  than  counterbalanced,  by  a  sim- 
ilar rise  in  prices ;  but  that  between  1820  and  1850  prices 
fell,  in  general,  making  the  rise  in  the  general  level  of 
real  wages  even  greate"  than  that  indicated  in  Table  II. 
Between  1850  and  1860,  however,  prices  rose,  being  from 
10  to  15  per  cent,  higher  in  the  decade  ending  1860  than 
in  the  decade  ending  1850,  according  to  the  index  numbers 
of  prices  prepared  by  Professor  Falkner.  However,  tak- 
ing into  account  the  comparative  steadiness  in  the  rise  of 
wages,  and  the  general  fall  in  prices  between  1819  and 
the  California  gold  discoveries,  it  is  highly  probable  that 
the  average  wage  earner  had  a  considerably  greater  in- 
come at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  than  at  the 
foundation  of  the  national  government ;  and  although 
this  conclusion  rests  upon  very  imperfect  data  for  a  sin- 


508 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


gle  state,  it  is  confirmed  by  all  the  collateral  information 
which  we  have,  bearing  upon  the  subject. 

TABLE  III 
Movement  op  Average  Prices  in  Massachusetts:  1752-1860" 


Prices 

in  decades 

ending 

Compared 

with  those 

in  decades 

ending 

Number  of  prices  which 

Decreased 

Increased 

Remained 
the  same 

1760 
1770 
1780 
1790 
1800 
1810 
1820 
1830 
1840 
1850 

1770 
1780 
1790 
1800 
1810 
1820 
1830 
1840 
1850 
1860 

6 
10 
13 
17 
18 
29 
67 
35 
48 
21 

12 
9 
14 
27 
40 
45 
8 
39 
24 
49 

1 
1 

2 

1 
1 
3 

1 

Beginning  with  1860  our  record  of  wages  in  the  United 
States  is  fairly  complete,  and  the  obstacle  in  the  way  of  as- 
certaining their  true  movement  is  primarily  one  of 
method,  arising  out  of  the  difficulty  of  combining  the 
known  facts  so  as  to  make  them  tell  a  story  that  is  at  once 
true  and  intelligible.  In  1893,  for  instance,  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Finance,  under  the  direction  of  Professor 
Roland  P.  Falkner,  made  an  investigation  of  the  move- 
ment of  wages  and  prices  between  1840  and  1891,  which, 

*  In  op.  cit.,  pp.  454-457.  As  the  articles  whose  prices  Increased  were 
about  aa  important  as  those  whose  prices  decreased,  it  seems  possible  to 
gain  a  rough  Idea  of  the  resultant  price  movement  from  the  simple  ex 
cess  of  rising  over  falling  prices,  or  vice  versa. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS       509 

SO  far  as  the  wage  movement  is  concerned,  is  rendered 
almost  wholly  useless  by  fundamental  defects  in  the 
method  of  combining  the  data.  This  Aldrich  Report,  as 
the  report  of  the  committee  is  frequently  called  from 
the  name  of  the  chairman,  is  often  cited  as  authoritative, 
but  it  unduly  exaggerates  the  rise  of  wages  between  1840 
and  1891,  and  on  this  account  it  is  necessary  to  draw  our 
conclusions  from  other  sources  which,  with  respect  to  the 
accuracy  and  amount  of  the  original  data,  are  less  satis- 
factory than  the  Aldrich  Report  itself. 

The  movement  of  wages  during  the  Civil  War,  which 
teaches  a  profoundly  important  lesson  concerning  the 
effects  of  currency  inflation  upon  the  income  of  the  wage- 
earner,  has  fortunately  been  worked  out  with  the  utmost 
thoroughness  by  Professor  W.  C.  Mitchell  in  his  History 
of  the  Greenhacks.  Wages — expressed  in  currency — rose 
rapidly,  but  less  rapidly  than  prices,  so  that  the  wage- 
earner  paid  dearly  for  the  experiment  with  inflation,  as 
indeed  he  seems  always  to  do.  "All  the  statistical  evi- 
dence that  has  been  presented  in  the  preceding  pages," 
says  Professor  Mitchell,  after  a  long  review  of  prices  and 
wages,  "supports  unequivocally  the  common  theory  that 
persons  whose  incomes  are  derived  from  wages  suffer  seri- 
ously from  a  depreciation  of  the  currency. ' ' 

The  net  effect  of  the  two  upward  movements  of  prices 
and  nominal  wages  is  shown,  so  far  as  it  can  be  presented 
statistically,  in  the  following  statistics  of  real  wages, 
which,  however,  Mr.  Mitchell  thinks,  somewhat  exagger- 
ate the  actual  injury  suffered  by  wage-earners.     Of  the 


510 


IjABUK   FKUBLiEMS 


TABLE  IV 
Relative  "Wages,  Nominal  and  Real:  1860-1865 

(Compiled  from  Mitchell's  History  of  the  Greenbacks,  chs.  IV  and  V) 


1 

Date 

All  emyloyees 

Farm  laborers 

Laborers 

Unskilled 
laborers 

Money 
wages 

Real 

wages 

Money 
wages 

Real 
wages 

Money 
wages 

Real 
wages 

Money 
wages 

Real 

wages 

1860  Jan. 

100 

100 

.  . 

100 

100 

100 

100 

July 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

100 

1861  Jan. 

103 

102 

100 

100 

103 

103 

July 

99 

104 

99 

104 

93 

98 

93 

98 

1862  Jan. 

102 

103 

100 

100 

100 

100 

July 

104 

101 

107 

104 

101 

98 

99 

96 

1863  Jan. 

116 

89 

.  • 

■  . 

123 

95 

121 

93 

July 

119 

86 

126 

91 

125 

90 

121 

93 

1864  Jan. 

131 

81 

143 

89 

143 

89 

July 

143 

71 

145 

72 

167 

84 

157 

78 

1865  Jan. 

153 

67 

173 

76 

169 

74 

July 

155 

97 

158 

99 

176 

110 

167 

104 

1866 Jan. 

161 

95  ( 

estimated  by  \ 

bhe  writer) 

July 

164 

103  ( 

estimated  by  \ 

bhe  writer) 

figures  given  in  the  table,  those  under  the  caption  "All 
Employees, ' '  are  the  most  trustworthy,  and  relate  to  more 
or  less  skilled  trades,  principally  in  manufacturing  in- 
dustries situated  north  of  the  Potomac  and  east  of  the 
Ohio  rivers.  The  relative  wages  of  farm  and  other  la- 
borers are  also  given,  because  of  the  important  fact,  too 
often  forgotten  in  investigations  of  wages,  that  there  are 
almost  as  many  farm  and  other  laborers  in  the  United 
States,  as  skilled  workmen.     At  the  Census  of  1870,  for 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        513 

instance,  there  were  in  the  United  States  12,505,923  per- 
sons ten  years  of  age  and  over,  engaged  in  gainful  occu- 
pations. This  includes  employers,  professional  men, 
farmers  and  salaried  workers  of  all  kinds.  Of  this  grand 
total,  4,908,278,  or  39  per  cent.,  consisted  of  laborers  and 
domestic  servants.  It  is  evident  that  about  as  much 
importance  should  be  attached  to  the  wages  of  laborers 
as  to  the  wages  of  all  skilled  workmen  combined,  but  it  is 
usually  upon  the  latter  class  of  data  alone  that  our  con- 
clusions are  based.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the 
figures  in  Table  IV  express  average  wages  in  the  form  of 
ratios  or  index  numbers,  based  upon  the  wages  current  in 
1860. 

After  the  end  of  the  Civil  War,  wages  rose  and  prices 
fell,  so  that  at  the  close  of  1865,  as  is  shown  in  Table  IV, 
the  wage-earner  had  regained  nearly  all  he  had  lost  during 
the  war,  and  real  wages  were  «nly  three  per  cent,  lower 
than  in  1860.  The  year  1866  ushered  in  a  new  epoch,  dur- 
ing which,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  the  American 
workingman  advanced  in  a  manner  unprecedented  in  this 
country  in  which  steady  progress  has  been  the  rule  since 
the  establishment  of  the  Union.  The  movement  of  wages 
since  the  Civil  War,  as  derived  from  those  tables  and  au- 
thorities which  seem  on  the  whole  most  trustworthy,  is 
compressed  into  Table  V  (page  514),  which  requires  a 
few  words  of  explanation. 

The  table,  it  will  be  noticed,  contains  statistics  of  rela- 
tive nominal  and  real  wages  for  two  main  groups  of  wage- 
earners,  agricultural  and  industrial  workers.     The  wages 


512  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

of  farm  laborers,  while  not  continuous,  have  all  been  pre- 
pared in  the  same  office,  presumably  in  accordance  with 
a  uniform  method,  and  cover  the  whole  United  States. 
They  are  not  only  general,  but  comparable,  one  year  with 
another.  The  wages  of  industrial  workers,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  the  results  of  three  distinct  investigations.  If 
each  of  these  investigations  covered  all  the  industrial 
occupations  and  thus  furnished  a  general  statement  of  the 
movement  of  average  wages  in  industry,  the  diifference 
in  the  source  of  the  statistics  would  be  negligible.  But 
unfortunately  they  do  not,  and  in  consequence  some  part 
of  the  movement  indicated  by  the  figures  probably  arises 
from  the  incidental  fact  that  the  averages  cover  different 
groups  of  wage  earners.  It  is  improbable,  however,  that 
the  error  thus  arising  is  very  great. 

In  the  second  place,  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  the 
statistics  of  real  wages  between  1866  and  1889  inclusive, 
express  the  purchasing  power  of  the  money  wage  in  terras 
of  wholesale  prices,  while  the  statistics  of  real  wages  be- 
tween 1890  and  1903  express  the  purchasing  power  of  the 
money  wage  in  terms  of  the  retail  prices  of  food  products. 
The  general  effect  of  this  change  of  basis  is,  in  all  prob- 
ability, to  exaggerate  the  advance  of  real  wages  between 
1866  and  1889  as  compared  with  the  advance  between 
1890  and  1903.  Finally,  the  student  should  be  warned 
that  it  is  only  in  periods  of  normal  industrial  conditions, 
that  statistics  of  real  wages  are  trustworthy.  In  indus- 
trial depressions,  prices  fall  more  than  wages,  at  least, 
more  than  wage  rates,  so  that  the  real  wages  are  ofter 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        513 

represented  as  increasing  when  the  welfare  and  comfort 
of  the  wage-earner  have  been  steadily  declining.  The 
statistics  of  real  wages  for  the  period  from  1893  to  1897 
furnish  a  good  illustration  of  this  absurd  defect  of  sta- 
tistics of  real  wages.  Real  wages  are  there  shown  to  be 
considerably  higher  in  1896  than  in  1892  or  1902.  The 
trouble  arises,  of  course,  from  the  failure  of  ordinary 
wage  statistics  to  take  account  of  unemployment. 

No  apology  will  be  made  for  the  space  and  attention 
devoted  to  the  foregoing  details.  It  is  the  careful  con- 
sideration of  just  such  details  as  this,  which  alone  make 
any  sound  or  exact  conclusions  possible  concerning  the 
progress  or  retrogression  of  the  wage-earning  classes. 
It  is  only  after  we  have  exposed  the  defects  of  our  data^ 
that  we  become  convinced  of  the  general  truth  of  the 
story  which  they  tell,  the  story  of  astonishing  progress 
since  the  close  of  the  war,  interrupted  by  periods  of  stag- 
nation, and  delayed  in  agriculture,  but  on  the  whole  rapid 
and  unmistakable.  Some  years  ago,  before  the  panic  of 
1893-1894,  candid  students  doubted  whether  the  total 
body  of  wage-earners— taking  into  account  the  slow 
progress  and  large  numbers  of  agricultural  and  unskilled 
workers— were  very  much  better  off  than  they  had  been 
about  1870.  To-day,  however,  owing  to  the  rapid  rise  of 
farm  wages  in  recent  years,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about 
the  striking  progress  of  the  last  half  centur3^  Table  V 
indicates  that  between  1866  and  1903  real  wages  rose 
more  than  100  per  cent,  in  industry  and  more  than  70  per 
sent,  in  agriculture.  Translate  these  figures  into  the  con- 
83 


514 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


TABLE  V 
Movement  of  Nominal  and  Real  Wages: 

(1890  as  the  Standard  Year) 


1866-1903 


hi 

O  0)  >> 
C3  Cd  d 

c3l>  3 

Ow- 

Relative Nom- 
inal Wages, 
Farm  Labor 

(With  Board) 

Relative 
Real  Wages, 
Farm  Labor 
(With  Board) 

u 

CD 
>* 

3  VI,-, 

C8  CS  CI 

Relative  Nom- 
inal Wages, 
Farm  Labor 

(With  Board) 

Relative 
Real  Wages 
Farm  Labor, 
(With  Board) 

Falk 

ner's 

1884 

98.5 

90.0 

Index 

Nos.' 

1885 

97.8 

98.2 

99.1 

99.5 

1866 

68.5 

47.9 

100.0^ 

70.0 

1886 

97.8 

98.1 

1867 

73.7 

56.0 

1887 

98.6 

97.8 

1868 

72.3 

53.9 

1888 

99.2 

96.6 

99.3 

96.7 

1869 

75.2 

62.7 

98.0 

81  .'8 

1889 

99.6 

94.8 

25  Oo 

cupa- 

Bureau  of 

tio 

ns« 

Labors,  519 

1870 

City  A 

87.3 

Vages 
68.7 

1890 

Occup 
100.0 

ations 
100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

1871 

94.7 

72.2 

1891 

99.7 

98.4 

.  , 

1872 

97.0 

74.9 

1892 

100.3 

100.8 

160.7 

101.2 

1873 

93.2 

76.3 

1893 

100.2 

98.3 

106.7 

104.7 

1874 

91.1 

73.2 

1894 

96.7 

99.4 

97.7 

100.3 

1875 

88.7 

72.5 

90.8 

74 

3 

1895 

97.4 

102.0 

96.5 

101.0 

1876 

86.3 

74.4 

1896 

98.5 

105.7 

. 

. 

1877 

88.8 

77.8 

1897 

98.2 

104.5 

1878 

91.3 

82.9 

1898 

99.0 

102.7 

107.9 

iii.9 

1879 

91.8 

90.5 

83.8 

82 

6 

1899 

100.2 

103.1 

113.0 

116.3 

1880 

92.6 

82.8 

1900 

103.1 

104.5 

^ 

1881 

95.3 

82.4 

1901 

104.8 

102.1 

1882 

96.9 

83.3 

99.7 

85 

7 

1902 

108.2 

100.0 

131.7 

121.6 

1883 

97.7 

85.9 

1903 

111.2 

103.2 

Crete  terms  of  material  well  being,  into  better  and  more 
food,  into  better  education,  more  and  saner  recreation, 


*  Unweighted  averages  of  wages  in  21  industries,  from  Aldrich  Re- 
port :  Wholesale  Prices,  Wa<jrs  and  Transportation,  p.  180.  All  wages 
in  this  table  are  on  the  gold  basis,  and  all  real  wages  down  to  1889  are 
based  upon  Palkner's  weighted  index  numbers  of  prices,  from  same  re- 
port, p.  100. 

*  Unweighted  averages  covering  12  important  cities,  from  Bui.  of  the 
Dept.  of  Labor,  No.  18,  p.  669. 

*  Weighted  averages  of  weekly  earnings  from  Bui.  of  the  Bur.  of 
Lahor,  No.  .5.3.  pp.  721-72.S.  All  real  wages  from  1890  to  1903  based 
upon  index  numbers  of  retail  prices  given  in  this  Bulletin. 

*  Weighted  averages  of  monthly  wages,  reduced  to  gold  basis,  com- 
plied from  Bui.  No.  26,  Mis.  Series,  U.  8.  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  p.  15, 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        515 

and  they  are  capable  of  an  indefinite  amount  of  rhetorical 
expansion.  But  the  figures  are  quite  as  eloquent  and 
much  briefer. 

2.  Decrease  in  the  Hours  of  Labor:  The  wage  sta- 
tistics cited  in  the  preceding  table,  except  those  for  indus- 
trial occupations  after  1889,  are  based  upon  wage  rates, 
and  hence  take  no  account  of  unemployment  or  of  the 
progressive  diminution  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
hours  of  labor.  If  account  could  be  taken  of  this  diminu- 
tion in  the  length  of  the  working  day,  the  advance  in 
wages  would  appear  even  greater  than  the  table  indicates. 

However,  our  interest  at  this  point  lies  in  the  general 
history  of  the  hours  of  labor  and  not  in  the  relation 
between  the  hours  of  labor  and  wages. 

In  no  branch  of  labor  history  are  the  facts  so  unequivo- 
cal, and,  on  the  whole,  so  encouraging  as  in  this  subject 
of  the  hours  of  labor.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  ordinary  working  day  was  from  sun  to  sun ; 
and  when  the  factory  system  was  introduced,  making 
work  by  artificial  light  possible,  the  hours  of  labor  were 
considerably  increased,  and  in  the  case  of  child  labor 
particularly,  to  a  cruel  degree.  For  instance,  the  early 
data  used  in  the  Aldrich  Report  on  WJiolcsale  Prices  and 
Wages,  and  Transportation,  was  secured,  as  the  report 
says,  from  "picked  establishments,"  where  conditions 
were  remarkablj^  good.  But  the  working  day  in  the 
cotton  factories  included  in  this  investigation  was  14 
hours  long  in  1840,  1841  and  1842 ;  and  did  not  fall  below 
13  hours  until  1852.     At  the  present  time,  the  average 


51ft  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

working  day  in  industry  is  probably  a  little  less  than  ten 
hours  long,  taking  Saturday  holidays  into  account ;  in  the 
Northern  and  Northwestern  States,  according  to  reliable 
testimony,  the  working  day  of  farm  laborers  has  been 
somewhat  reduced  in  recent  years,  except  during  harvest 
time ;  a  large  number  of  trades,  particularly  the  building 
workers,  have  secured  an  eight  hour  day  in  the  more  pro- 
gressive parts  of  the  country;  and  a  large  number  of 
increasingly  effective  laws  are  being  passed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  reducing  hours  of  labor  in  those  industries  and 
occupations  like  bakeries,  street  railways,  underground 
mines,  etc.,  in  which  the  working  day  is,  or  until  recently 
has  been,  excessive.  Although  the  movement  for  reduc- 
tion is  active  and  encouraging,  the  working  day  has  not 
been  shortened  as  much,  probably,  as  the  average  man 
believes.  The  movement  is  represented  statistically  in 
Table  VI,  following.  Existing  conditions  in  New  York, 
which  is  probably  typical  of  the  more  advanced  manu- 
facturing states,  are  accurately  described  in  the  following 
excerpts  from  the  Second  Aimual  Report  of  the  New  York 
Commissioner  of  Labor :^ 

**The  reports  of  the  factory  inspectors  state  the  hours 
of  labor  of  employees  in  each  establishment  inspected  and 


*VoI.  T,  p.  22.  The  rpsults  quoted  on  page  517  are  confirmed  by  the 
statistics  gathered  by  the  National  Manufacturers'  Association  and 
submitted  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor  in  Decem- 
ber, 1902,  with  the  object  of  defeating  the  eight-hour  bill  then  before 
Congress.  The  statistics  cover  2,816  firms  employing  644,715  workmen. 
These  statistics  show  that  In  1  per  cent,  of  the  establishments  the  worl?- 
Ing  day  was  8  and  less  than  9  hours;  in  40.8  per  cent.  9  and  less  than 

10  hours;  In  54.7  per  cent.  10  and  less  than  11  hours;  In  3.5  per  cent 

11  houre  or  more. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        517 

indicate  that  of  the  800,000  workers  in  factories,  6  per 
cent,  work  not  more  than  8i/>  hours  a  day,  32  per  cent. 
9  to  9I/2  hours,  59  per  cent.  10  or  IO14  hours,  and  two  per 
cent,  more  than  lOi/^  hours  per  day.  The  lO-hour  day 
(58,  59  or  60  hours  a  week)  still  prevails  in  most  indus- 
tries ;  but  longer  hours  are  usually  worked  in  paper  and 
pulp  mills  and  in  water,  gas  and  electric  lighting  plants. 
In  two  groups  of  industries  the  9  or  9i/^-hour  day  pre- 
dominates—the typographical  trades  and  the  garment 
trades— while  in  the  building  industry  the  most  numer- 
ous class  of  employees  are  those  who  work  less  than  52 
hours  a  week.  That  is  also  the  only  industry  in  which 
no  employees  are  reported  as  working  more  than  63  hours 
a  week." 

In  Table  VI  following  a  historical  view  of  the  hours  of 
labor  in  mechanical  and  manufacturing  industries  is 
given.  The  figures  for  the  period  1840-1890  are  from  the 
Aldrich  Report  quoted  above  and  cover  only  21  industries. 
The  figures  from  1891  to  1903  are  from  the  Bulletin  of  the 
Bureau  of  Labor  for  July,  1904,  and  cover  67  industries. 
The  figures  are  put  in  the  form  of  ratios  based  upon  the 
average  hours  of  labor  in  1890,  but  as  this  average  was 
10.0  hours  exactly,  according  to  the  Aldrich  Report,  the 
figures  for  the  years  1840-1890  indicate  the  absolute  as 
well  as  the  relative  length  of  the  working  day.  "The 
reduction  in  the  number  of  hours,"  says  the  Aldrich 
Report,  * '  seems  hardly  as  considerable  as  might  have  been 
expected.  It  must  be  remembered  that  our  figures  refer 
to  certain  picked  establishments,  where,  in  view  of  the 


518 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


complete  organization  at  an  early  date,  it  is  probable  that 
shorter  hours  made  an  earlier  appearance  than  in  the 
mass  of  workshops.  It  may  therefore  be  doubted  whether 
these  figures,  absolutely  correct  as  they  are  for  the  estab- 
lishments in  question,  give  a  perfectly  adequate  picture 
of  general  conditions."  The  following  statistics,  then, 
underestimate  rather  than  overestimate  the  reduction 
which  has  taken  place. 

TABLE  VI 
Average  Hours  op  Labor:  1840-1903 

(1890  as  the  Standard  Year) 


Year 

1 

Relative 

hours  of 

labor 

Year 

Relative 

hours  of 

labor 

Year 

Relative 

hours  of 

labor 

1840 

114 

1861 

109 

1882 

103 

1841 

105 

1862 

108 

1883 

103 

1842 

114 

1863 

108 

1884 

103 

1843 

115 

1864 

108 

1885 

103 

1844 

116 

1865 

107 

1886 

102 

1845 

115 

1866 

108 

1887 

100 

1846 

114 

1867 

108 

1888 

100 

1847 

115 

1868 

106 

1889 

100 

1848 

113 

1869 

106 

1890 

100' 

1849 

112 

1870 

105 

1891 

99.8 

1850 

115 

1871 

105 

1892 

99.8 

1851 

114 

1872 

105 

1893 

99.6 

1852 

112 

1873 

105 

1894 

99.1 

1853 

113 

1874 

105 

1895 

99.4 

1854 

111 

1875 

103 

1896 

99.1 

1855 

111 

1876 

103 

1897 

98.9 

1856 

110 

1877 

103 

1898 

99 

1857 

109 

1878 

103 

1899 

98.5 

1858 

110 

1879 

103 

1900 

98 

1859 

111 

1880 

103 

1901 

97.4 

1860 

110 

1881 

103 

1902 
1903 

96.6 
95.9 

•Statistics  from  1891 
parable  with  those  for 

to  1903  not  ex 
1840-1889. 

actly  corn- 

MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        519 

3.  Movement  of  Unemployment:  There  is  no  more 
difficult  topic  in  the  whole  range  of  labor  problems,  and 
few  so  important,  as  this  subject  of  unemployment,  but 
of  the  movement  of  unemployment,  whether  it  is  more 
or  less  extensive  in  the  United  States  than  it  was  in  the 
past,  we  know  practically  nothing.  The  amount  of  unem- 
ployment varies  so  greatly  from  year  to  year,  as  well  as 
from  season  to  season,  that,  in  order  to  gain  any  idea  of 
its  increase  or  decrease,  we  must  secure  a  series  of  monthly 
or  quarterly  percentages,  extending  over  a  long  series  of 
years ;  and  there  is  nothing  approaching  such  a  series 
in  American  statistical  literature.  In  1885,  as  shown  in 
Chapter  V,  an  investigation  in  Massachusetts  revealed  the 
fact  that  29.6  per  cent  of  the  population  had  been  out  of 
employment  some  time  during  the  year ;  while  in  1900  a 
somewhat  similar  investigation  resulted  in  a  correspond- 
ing percentage  of  28.2,  In  1890  the  census  investigation 
covering  the  whole  of  the  United  States,  indicated  that 
15.1  per  cent,  of  the  population  10  years  of  age  and  over 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  had  been  out  of  employ- 
ment sometime  during  the  Census  year ;  and  a  similar 
investigation  in  1900  resulted  in  a  corresponding  per- 
centage of  22.3 ;  but  we  are  warned  in  the  Census  reports 
that  these  results  are  of  doubtful  value.  The  New  York 
figures,  quoted  in  Chapter  V,  cover  only  the  period  since 
1897,  and  while  they  are  trustworthy  in  themselves,  throw 
no  light  upon  the  history  of  unemployment. 

In  Great  Britain,  however,  a  careful  series  of  percent- 


520 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


ages  has  been  prepared  by  Mr.  George  H.  Wood,^  based 
upon  the  records  of  certain  important  trade  unions^  the 
aggregate  membership  of  which  was  32,414  in  1860,  and 
213,150  in  1891.  The  principal  results  of  this  investiga- 
tion are  quoted  in  Table  VII  following,  together  with 
statistics  published  by  the  British  Labor  Department 
since  1886,  which  rests  upon  returns  from  all  the  more 

TABLE  VII 

Percentage  of  Unemployment  in  Certain  British 

Trade  Unions. 


Average 
of 

Average 
of 

Average 
of 

Lai  .)r 

Average 

Year 

Monthly 
Percent- 
ages 

Previous 

Ten 

Years' 

Year 

Monthly 
Percent- 
ages 

Depart- 
ment 
Returns 

of 

Previous 

Ten  Years 

1860 

1.61 

1.61 

1882 

1.92 

4.36 

1861 

4.28 

2.94 

1883 

2.23 

4.46 

1862 

7.81 

4.56 

1884 

7.40 

5  00 

1863 

5.74 

4.86 

1885 

8.98 

5.66 

1864 

2.56 

4.40 

1886 

9.55 

6  27 

1865 

2.01 

4.00 

1887 

7.42 

8'.W 

6.57 

1866 

3.10 

3.87 

1888 

4.55 

4.9 

6  39 

1867 

7.34 

4.30 

1889 

2.05 

2.10 

5.35 

1868 

8.51 

4.77 

1890 

1.90 

2.12 

4.94 

1869 

7.42 

5.04 

1891 

3.04 

3.5 

4.90 

1870 

4.32 

5.31 

1892 

6.25 

5.52' 

1871 

1.81 

5.06 

1893 

7.5 

6.05' 

1873 

1.06 

4.39 

1894 

6.91 

6.00' 

1873 

1.26 

3.94 

1895 

5.8 

5.68' 

1874 

1.76 

3.86 

1896 

3.41 

5.06 

1875 

2.49 

3.80 

1897 

3.5 

4.60 

1876 

3.56 

3.95 

1898 

3.0 

4.41 

1877 

4.44 

3.66 

1899 

2.4 

4.44 

1878 

6.31 

8.44 

1900 

2.9 

4.52 

1879 

12.5 

3.95 

1901 

3.8 

4.55 

1880 

5.93 

4.11 

1902 

1881 

3.45 

4.17 

1903 

»  Until  1869  the  average 
the  table. 

'  Returns  of  Lab.  Dept.  based  upon  all  trade  unions  reporting. 

•  Based  partly  upon  Mr.  Wood'si  data.     Decennial  averages  after  1891 
Ineerted  by  the  writer. 

^Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society,  Vol.  62,  pp.  645-648. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        521 


important  British  trade  unions.  Alongside  of  the  annual 
percentages,  decennial  averages  have  been  placed,  in  order 
to  eliminate  the  temporary  fluctuations,  and  elicit  the 
general  variation  of  unemployment. 

It  is  the  series  of  decennial  percentages  that  deserve 
the  most  attention.  The  figures,  as  Mr.  Wood  says,  com- 
bined in  any  fair  way,  indicate  a  general  decrease  in 
unemployment,  until  about  1875,  after  which  the  per- 
centage grew,  reaching  a  maximum  about  1886.  From 
the  five  and  ten  year  averages  given  below,  Mr.  Wood 
concludes  that  unemployment  in  Great  Britain  is  on  the 
increase,  when  temporary  fluctuations  are  eliminated. 
"Many  trade  union  officials,"  says  Mr.  Wood  in  the  same 
paper,  "hold  the  view  that  trade  depressions  are  more 
frequent  now  than  formerly,  and  that  the  cycle  that 
formerly  lasted  ten  years,  now  lasts  seven  or  eight. 
There  seem  good  grounds  for  this  view,  for  since  1877  we 
have  been  through  three  trade  depressions  in  twenty-two 
years,  and  if,  as  I  believe  it  is,  the  average  percentage  of 
workmen  seeking  employment  is  greater  over  a  decade 
now,  than  before  the  depression  at  the  end  of  1870-79, 
this  is  entirely  due  to  the  greater  frequency  of  trade 
depressions. ' ' 

Average  Percentage  Unemployed 


Periods 

Per  cent. 

Periods 

Per  cent. 

Periods 

1880-84 
1884-89 
1880-89 

Per  cent. 

1860-64 
1865-69 
1860-69 

4.40 
5.67 
5.04 

1870-74 
1875-79 
1870-79 

2.04 
5.79 
3.91 

4.18 
6.52 
5.34 

4.     General  Progress  in  the  Last  Century:     It  is  im- 


522  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

possible  to  go  on  with  a  detailed  account  of  the  wonderful 
progress  made  by  the  working  classes  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution  in  1789.  Not  only  have  wages  steadily 
increased,  and  the  hours  of  labor  and  other  conditions  of 
labor  greatly  improved  under  the  operation  of  our  factory 
acts,  but  the  working  man  reads  more,  travels  more,  has  a 
better  education,  and  enjoys  a  vast  number  of  conven- 
iences and  comforts  of  which  his  forefathers  knew  little 
or  nothing.  There  is,  of  course,  another  side  to  the  pic- 
ture, as  was  suggested  in  Chapter  V.  It  is  possible  that 
the  strain  and  intensity  of  labor  have  increased,  that 
working  men  wear  out  at  a  somewhat  earlier  age,  that  the 
proportion  of  industrial  accidents  has  grown,  and  it  may 
be  true,  in  this  age  of  extreme  specialization  when  men 
must  do  something  well  to  secure  employment  at  all,  that 
the  relative  number  of  incompetents,  of  hopeless,  dis- 
couraged failures,  is  increasing.  AA^hether  these  items 
which  must  be  placed  on  the  debit  side  of  our  ledger  of 
progress,  balance  or  more  than  balance  the  vast  number 
of  entries  which  belong  to  the  credit  side,  is  a  question 
which  each  person  must  settle  for  himself.  But  the 
writer,  at  least,  entertains  no  doubt  that  the  net  result  is 
progress,  probably  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  If  the  intensity  of  labor  is  increasing,  the  general 
death  rate  is  decreasing;  if  the  proportion  of  incompe- 
tents is  slightly  increasing— and  this  is  doubtful— the 
absolute  numbers  of  those  who  live  clean,  active,  happy 
lives,  securing  a  modest  living  with  a  sane  and  reasonable 
amount  of  agreeable  work,  has  enormously  increased ; 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        523 

while  a  broader  spirit  of  charity,  a  milder  attitude 
towards  children,  dependents  and  the  helpless,  is  abroad, 
and  in  the  trade  union  and  labor  law  we  possess  agencies 
which  will  solve,  or  at  least  ameliorate,  new  and  threaten- 
ing evils  such  as  the  increase  of  industrial  accidents. 

Perhaps  the  best  single  statistical  index  of  material 
progress  is  found  in  the  consumption  of  certain  semi-lux- 
uries, like  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  tobacco,  beer,  etc.,  whose 
consumption  can  only  be  greatly  increased  by  larger 
expenditures  on  the  part  of  the  lower  and  middle  classes. 
The  per  capita  consumption  of  this  class  of  goods  has 
increased  enormously  during  the  last  half  century  in 
every  country  where  statistics  of  consumption  are  pub- 
lished. Thus  in  the  United  States  between  1871  and  1903 
inclusive,  the  per  capita  consumption  of  coffee  increased 
from  7.91  to  10.79  pounds,  that  of  sugar  from  36.2  pounds 
to  71.1  pounds,  that  of  malt  liquors  from  6.10  gallons  to 
18.04  gallons,  that  of  wheat  and  flour  from  4.69  bushels 
to  5.81  bushels.  In  the  United  Kingdom,  where  fuller 
statistics  of  consumption  are  prepared  than  in  the  United 
States,  Mr.  George  H.  Wood,  in  the  careful  and  impartial 
article  cited  above,  has  been  able  to  combine  the  statistics 
of  about  fifteen  important  articles  into  the  form  of  a 
weighted  index  number  showing  the  average  increase  of 
the  per  capita  consumption  from  1860  to  1896.  The 
articles  included  are  wheat  and  wheat  flour,  cocoa,  coffee, 
cotton,  currants  and  raisins,  meat,  rice,  sugar,  tea,  tobacco, 
wool,  wine,  spirits,  malt  and  beer.  The  index  numbers, 
showing  the  average  movement  of  consumption,  are  given 


524 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


below,  and  form  on  tho  whole  the  best  single  measure  of 
the  progress  of  the  working  classes  of  which  the  writer 
has  any  knowledge.  Of  course,  the  statistics  refer  only 
to  the  United  Kingdom,  but  the  movement  was  probably 
very  similar  in  the  United  States.  Five  different  systems 
of  weighting  were  used  by  Mr.  Wood  in  order  to  make 
certain  that  no  reasonable  system  of  weights  would 
materially  alter  the  results.  Of  these  the  results  given  by 
system  5  are  the  most  trustworthy'-,  and  they  indicate  that 
the  average  consumption  increased  40  per  cent,  between 
1860-64  and  1895-96. 

TABLE  VIII 

Averages  of  Consumption  of  Commodities  in  Quinquennial 

Periods:  United  Kingdom 

(Consumption  in  1870-'79  as  the  \init  of  comparison) 


Periods 

Un- 
weiffhted 
averages 

Weighted 
averages 

(system  5) 

Periods 

Un- 
weighted 
averages 

Weighted 
averages 
(system  5) 

1860-64 

76.3 

83.0 

1880-84 

104.1 

103.3 

1865-69 

83.9 

88.1 

1885-89 

104.0 

105.0 

1870-74 

97.1 

97.8 

1890-94 

111.4 

115.0 

1875-79 

102.5 

102.0 

1895-96 

115.2 

116.7 

Returning  to  the  United  States  for  a  last  Avord  con- 
cerning the  subject  of  material  progress,  which  shall 
supplement  and  explain  the  more  or  less  misleading  sta- 
tistics of  wages  given  in  Table  V,  w^e  shall  probably  find 
no  more  illuminating  material  than  that  recorded  in  the 
periodic  investigations  of  family  budgets  made  by  the 
Massachusetts    Bureau    of    Statistics    of    Labor.^      The 

*  See  Thirty-Second  Annual  licport,  "Prices  and  Cost  of  Living."  p. 
307  passim. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS       525 

investigation  made  in  1901-2  compared  with  those  made 
in  1872  and  1875  indicates  that  the  income  of  the  better 
class  workingmen 's  families  increased  from  about  $763 
in  the  earlier  period  to  about  $814  in  the  latter  period, 
and  that  in  the  interval  retail  prices  decreased  a  little  less 
than  20  per  cent.  Notwithstanding  this  decrease  in  prices 
which  made  it  possible  to  purchase  the  commodities  which 
cost  $738  in  1872  for  about  $600  in  1902,  the  average 
family  had  a  surplus  of  $24.72  in  1875  as  compared  with 
one  of  $16.18  in  1902.  If  the  standard  of  living  had  not 
changed  in  the  interval,  the  surplus  in  1902  would  have 
been  about  $160.  Some  such  amount  as  this  has  evidently 
been  conferred  upon  the  average  workingman's  family 
by  the  economic  progress  of  the  last  forty  years.  It  has 
been  devoted  to  increased  consumption,  and  is  good  or  evil 
in  its  effects  as  it  is  wisely  or  unwisely  spent. 

In  the  following  tabular  statement,  the  results  of  the 
investigations  of  1875  and  1901-2  are  compared  in  some- 
what greater  detail.  To  the  writer,  at  least,  the  bare 
facts  which  it  contains  are  eloquent.  It  is  apparent  that 
even  the  American  workman  of  the  better  class  still  has 
a  hard  time  to  make  ends  meet,  and  that  although  the 
gross  abuses  of  child  labor  have  been  suppressed  in  Massa- 
chusetts, some  of  the  burden  of  which  the  children  have 
been  relieved  has  been  placed  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
wives  and  daughters.  Even  the  path  of  progress  is  a 
devious  one. 


526 


LABOR  PROBLEMS 


Comparison  of  the  Resui-ts  of  Investigations  of  Family 

Budgets  in  1875  and  1901-2 

(Massachusetts) 


In  the  majority  of  cases,  work- 
Ingmen  In  this  Commonweaith  do 
not  support  tlieir  families  by  their 
Individual    earnings    alone. 

Fathers  rely,  or  are  forced  to 
depend,  upon  their  children  for 
from  onc-ijuartcr  to  one-third  of 
the  entire  family  earnings. 

Children  under  fifteen  years  of 
age  supply,  by  their  labor,  from 
one-eighth  to  ofie-sixth  of  the  to- 
tal family  earnings. 

Of  the  children  at  work  in  the 
families  reported  in  1875  nearly 
31  per  cent,  were  under  14  years 
of  age.  and  about  54  per  cent, 
under  15. 

The  amount  of  earnings  con- 
tributed by  wives,  generally 
speaking.  Is  so  small,  that  they 
would  save  more  by  staying  at 
home  than  they  gained  by  out- 
side labor.  The  actual  amount 
contributed  constituted  but  eigh- 
ty-eight hundredths  of  one  per 
cent,  of  the  aggregate  income  of 
all  the  families  reported,  and  in 
the  entire  number  (397)  only  12 
wivea   aided   by    outside   work. 

A  large  proportion  of  the 
skilled  workingmen  visited  have 
sewing  or  other  labor-saving:  ma- 
chines in  use  in  their  families. 
As  evidences  of  material  prosper- 
ity to  a  certain  extent,  signifi- 
cant numbers  of  the  families  (the 
aid  of  child  labor  being  fully  al- 
lowed) own  pianos  or  cabinet  or- 
gans, have  carpeted  rooms,  and 
maintain  pews  in  church. 


1901-02 

In  the  present  investigation, 
out  of  the  total  number  of  fami- 
lies (152),  the  earnings  of  the 
head  were  sufficient  to  meet  the 
family  expenditure  in  but  25. 

Out  of  the  ontire  family  income 
only  11.32  per  cent.,  or  a  little 
less  than  one-ricj7ith,  was  received 
from  the  earnings  of  minor  chil- 
dren. 

Nothing  contributed  by  children 
under  15. 

No  children  permitted  to  wck 
if  under  14.  In  the  families  re- 
ported no  children  under  15  were 
at  work. 

Out  of  the  152  families  report- 
ed, 32  wives  worked  outside  the 
family,  and  in  the  aggregate  con- 
tributed 5.29  per  cent,  of  the  ag- 
gregate income  reported  from  all 
the  families.  (Apparently,  the 
lesser  proportion  of  children 
working  is  partly  offset  by  a 
greater  proportion  of  wives  con- 
tributing by  their  earnings  to 
the  family   income.) 

The  same  facts  appear  at  pres- 
ent In  even  greater  degree  (child 
labor,  so  far  as  young  children 
are  concerned,  being  eliminated). 
The  conditions  as  to  housing  gen- 
erally show  considerable  improve- 
ment over  those  reported  in  1875. 
This  accounts  In  part  for  the 
higher  rental  rates  reported  as 
compared  with  five  years  ago.  al- 
though the  average  is  slightly 
higher  than  that  of  1872.  and  the 
proportion  of  expenditure  for  rent 
has  decreased.  Of  the  entire  num- 
ber of  families.  88.82  per  cent, 
that  is.  a  proportion  of  nearly  89 
In  every  100.  reported  expendi- 
tures for  religion  and  charity. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        527 

5.  The  Good  Old  Times— A  Contrast:  Despite  the  ac- 
cumulating evidences  of  progress  which  historical  and 
statistical  study  are  constantly  unearthing,  the  belief  still 
lingers  in  many  quarters  that,  although  our  forefathers 
possessed  less  wealth  in  the  aggregate  or  per  capita  than 
their  present  day  descendants,  nevertheless  there  was  no 
intense  poverty  or  degradation  among  them  such  as  we 
find  in  the  city  slums  to-day.  The  American  colonists 
had  little  money,  says  Mr.  John  Mitchell  in  his  admirable 
work,  Organized  Labor,  but  "the  needs  of  the  people 
were  satisfied  in  a  large,  rough,  substantial  fashion." 

It  is  probably  true  that  a  majority  of  the  people  did 
live  in  a  state  of  "rude  but  substantial  comfort,"  as  a 
large  majority  of  the  people  do  to-day,  and  that  there 
were  some  communities  characterized  by  an  unusually 
high  level  of  material  prosperity,  just  as  one  finds  towns 
and  wide  farming  communities  in  the  Middle  West  to- 
day, where  real  poverty  is  practically  unknown.  Thus  in 
a  Description  of  Pennsylvania  and  of  its  Capital,  printed 
in  1698  by  a  man  who  had  resided  in  Pennsylvania  for 
fifteen  years,  a  most  enthusiastic  account  of  the  prosper- 
ity and  happiness  of  the  colonists  is  given:  "There  are 
no  beggars  to  be  seen,  nor,  indeed,  have  any  here  the  least 
temptation  to  take  up  that  scandalous  lazy  life." 

But  the  better  historical  judgment  seems  to  be  that  the 
comfort  of  the  colonial  era,  while  ruder,  indeed,  was  no 
more  widespread  or  substantial  than  it  is  to-day,  and  that 
taking  account  of  the  difl'erence  in  population,  there  was 
more  and  not  less  of  the  wretchedness  and  degradation 


528  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

attendant  upon  extreme  poverty.  The  horrors  of  the  city 
slum  were  matched  and  even  surpassed  by  the  horrors  of 
the  frontier;  in  both  a  grinding  struggle  to  obtain  the 
necessities  of  life  have  blunted  the  moral  faculties  and 
sapped  the  physical  powers,  in  both  disease  has  been  con- 
stantly rife,  and  both  have  furnished  breeding  places  for 
plague  and  epidemic ;  in  both  ignorant  immigrants  have 
battled  with  the  adversities  of  a  foreign  tongue  and  a 
strange  civilization,  eking  out  an  existence  M'hich  was  too 
often  a  prolonged  process  of  starvation.  Of  course,  com- 
parisons of  this  kind  are  dangerous  and  perhaps  mislead- 
ing. The  poverty  of  one  epoch  is  possibly  never  exactly 
comparable  with  that  of  another.  But  if  we  must  draw 
conclusions  respecting  progress  or  retrogression,  let  us  be 
true  to  the  facts.  "There  is  a  strong  temptation,"  says 
Professor  Marshall,  "to  over-state  the  economic  evils  of 
our  own  age,  and  to  ignore  the  existence  of  similar  and 
worse  evils  in  earlier  ages ;  for  by  so  doing  we  may  for  the 
time  stimulate  others,  as  well  as  ourselves,  to  a  more  in- 
tense resolve  that  the  present  evils  shall  no  longer  be 
allowed  to  exist.  But  it  is  not  less  wrong,  and  generally 
it  is  much  more  foolish,  to  palter  with  truth  for  a  good 
than  for  a  selfish  cause.  *  *  *  This  impatient  insincerity 
is  an  evil  only  less  great  than  that  moral  torpor  which  can 
endure  that  we,  with  our  modern  resources  and  knowl- 
edge, should  look  on  contentedly  at  the  continued  de- 
struction of  all  that  is  worth  having  in  multitudes  of 
human  lives,  and  solace  ourselves  with  the  reflection  that 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        529 

anyhow  the  evils  of  our  age  are  less  than  those  of  the 
past."^ 

In  the  first  place  there  was  slavery.  In  judging  the 
economic  condition  of  the  American  laboring  classes  in 
the  past,  we  must  always  remember  the  degradation  and 
misery  involved  in  chattel  slavery,  and  the  fact  that  from 
the  first  introduction  of  negro  slaves  into  Virginia  in 
1619,  until  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a 
steadily  increasing  proportion  of  American  workingmen 
were  slaves.  In  1790  there  were  about  750,000  slaves  in 
the  United  States,  constituting  about  19  per  cent,  of  the 
total  population.  Their  condition  was  most  miserable. 
"To  steal  a  negro  was  felony.  To  take  his  life  while 
punishing  him  was  not.  Indeed,  if  a  planter  provided 
coarse  food,  coarse  clothes  and  a  rude  shelter  for  his 
slaves :  if  he  did  not  work  them  more  than  fifteen  hours 
out  of  twenty-four  in  summer,  nor  more  than  fourteen  in 
winter,  and  gave  them  every  Sabbath  to  themselves,  he 
did  quite  as  much  for  their  comfort  as  the  law  required  he 
should."^  The  negroes,  in  point  of  decency,  health, 
morals,  and  even  with  respect  to  food,  shelter  and  cloth- 
ing, are  perhaps  not  greatly  better  off  now  than  they  were 
immediately  before  the  Civil  War.  Temporary  loss  in 
material  comforts  is  the  price  frequently  paid  for  liberty. 
But  the  first  great  step  in  material  advancement  has  been 
taken,  and  every  subsequent  advance  must  be,  in  compar- 
ison with  the  Civil  War,  comparatively  easy. 


'  Principles  of  EconomHffi.  ch.  XII,  Sec.  12. 

•McMaster,  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  II,  p.  lOt 
34 


530  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

When  we  consider  the  white  laboring  classes  during  the 
colonial  era,  we  find  that  a  large  proportion  were,  from 
the  earliest  settlements  in  New  England  and  Virginia, 
bondsmen.  "George  Donne,  the  author  of  a  manuscript 
in  the  Bodleian,  saw  servants  brought  to  Virginia  by  the 
shipload  after  1630,  and  he  describes  the  horrors  of  the 
traffic,  their  insufficient  food,  their  ragged  and  barefoot 
condition  and  their  landing  far  from  their  destination 
and  being  forced  to  march  the  rest  of  the  way  in  their 
enfeebled  state.  Nearly  all  the  emigrants  that  came  be- 
tween 1620  and  1650  were  bondsmen.  *  *  'Vfter  the  Res- 
toration, servants  were  sold  in  great  numbers  to  Virginia. 
Fifteen  hundred  a  year  is  the  estimate  of  Berkeley  at  a 
time  when  Virginia  contained  but  two  thousand  black 
slaves.  As  the  term  was  for  four  years,  there  were  six 
thousand  white  slaves  always  in  bondage  there.  Before 
1650  the  term  of  some  was  ten  years  or  more,  and  that  of 
many  was  seven  or  eight  years.  After  the  restoration  of 
the  Stuarts  in  1660  the  term  of  service  was  permanently 
reduced  to  four  years. '  '^ 

This  class  of  indentured  servants  consisted  of  runaway 
apprentices,  penniless  debtors,  kidnapped  children,  hon- 
est laborers  binding  themselves  for  a  number  of  years  in 
order  to  get  to  America,  and  vicious  or  criminal  ne'er-do- 
wells  who  were  kept  in  order  by  the  most  brutal  punish- 
ments. Scourging  with  hickory  rods  was  common,  the 
punishment  being  sometimes  repeated  from  day  to  day, 
and  the  wounds  washed  with  brine  in  order  to  stop  the 

1  Edward  Eggleston,  The  Transit  of  Civilization,  pp.  296,  298. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS       531 

bleeding  and  increase  the  pain.  ' '  There  were  also  in  use, 
by  masters  and  overseers,  thumbscrews,  sweatings,  and 
other  such  devil's  devices.  The  food  allowed  was  some- 
times a  scant  diet  of  Indian  meal.  The  sick  servant  was 
neglected  lest  the  doctor's  charge  should  exceed  the  value 
of  his  remaining  service  ;  and  one  thrifty  master  in  Mary- 
land required  a  servant,  sick  of  a  mortal  disease,  to  dig 
his  own  grave  in  advance,  in  order  to  save  the  other  men 's 
time."i 

One  of  the  most  prolific  sources  of  misery  and  poverty 
was  imprisonment  for  debt,  and  the  weaker  and  more 
defenceless  the  laboring  man,  the  more  likely  he  was  to 
be  caught  in  this  quicksand.  "The  jails,"  says  John 
Mitchell,  "were  filled  with  debtors,  many  of  them  work- 
ing men.  It  was  estimated  that  of  the  inmates  of  the 
prisons  of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania 
in  1829,  20,000  were  there  for  the  non-payment  of  debts, 
most  of  these  being  small  in  amount.  The  average  per 
capita  indebtedness  of  1,085  debtors  in  the  Philadelphia 
prison  in  1828  was  less  than  $24.00,  and  one  case  is  on 
record  in  which  a  man  was  confined  in  jail  thirty-two 
days  for  a  debt  of  two  cents. '  '^ 

The  conditions  in  these  prisons  beggar  description,  and 
make  it  plain  that  the  temper  of  the  age  was  stern  and 
harsh  to  the  point  of  brutality.  "For  more  than  fifty 
years  after  the  peace,"  says  Professor  McMaster,  "there 
was  in  Connecticut  an  underground  prison  which  sur- 


>  Edward  Eggleston,  The  Transit  of  Civilization,  pp.  297-298. 
"Oryanized  Labor,  p.  61. 


532  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

passed  in  horrors  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta.  This  den, 
known  as  the  Newgate  prison,  was  in  an  old  worked-out 
copper  mine  in  the  hills  near  Granby.  The  only  entrance 
to  it  was  by  means  of  a  ladder  down  a  shaft  which  led  to 
the  caverns  underground.  There,  in  little  pens  of  wood, 
from  thirty  to  one  hundred  culprits  were  immured,  their 
feet  made  fast  to  iron  bars,  and  their  necks  chained  to 
beams  in  the  roof.  The  darkness  was  intense ;  the  caves 
reeked  with  filth ;  vermin  abounded ;  water  trickled  from 
the  roof  and  oozed  from  the  sides  of  the  caverns;  huge 
masses  of  earth  were  perpetually  falling  off.  In  the 
dampness  and  filth  the  clothing  of  the  prisoners  grew 
mouldy  and  rotted  away,  and  their  limbs  became  stiff 
with  rheumatism.  The  Newgate  prison  was  perhaps  the 
worst  in  the  country,  yet  in  every  county  were  jails  such 
as  would  now  be  thought  unfit  places  of  habitation  for 
the  vilest  and  most  loathsome  of  beasts. ' '  And  we  must 
not  forget  the  broader  meaning  of  these  facts.  The  same 
public  spirit  that  permitted  such  treatment  of  prisoners 
must  have  touched  life  at  a  thousand  other  points,  mak- 
ing the  treatment  of  women  and  children  and  servants 
infinitely  harsher  than  at  present,  tolerating  conditions  of 
labor  that  would  not  now  be  permitted  in  any  state  that 
boasts  of  a  factory  act. 

6.  The  Concentration  of  ^Vealth  :  A  few  years  ago  that 
element  of  the  community  which  desires  to  remedy  exist- 
ing economic  evils  by  the  introduction  of  radical  reforms, 
was  somewhat  disposed  to  deny  that  any  real  progress  had 
been  made  by  the  working  classes  during  the  last  century, 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS       533 

and  it  was  frequently  asserted  that  the  rich  were  getting 
richer,  and  the  poor  poorer.  The  evidences  of  increasing 
comfort  adduced  by  economic  students  in  the  last  few 
years — often  exaggerated,  it  must  be  admitted — have, 
however,  silenced  this  dictum,  and  the  complaint  most 
frequently  heard  at  the  present  time  is  not  that  the  poor 
are  getting  poorer,  but  that  they  are  not  growing  richer 
as  rapidly  as  the  rich;  in  other  words,  that  the  age  is 
characterized  by  an  "  alarming  tendency  towards  the  con- 
centration of  wealth. ' ' 

Few  phrases  have  been  so  abused  as  this  shibboleth  of 
the  discontented,  concentration  of  wealth,  and  few  sub- 
jects have  been  so  unintelligently  discussed  by  economists 
and  statisticians.  The  phrase  itself  is  practically  mean- 
ingless unless  it  is  further  qualified  by  a  statement  of 
where  or  in  what  class  wealth  is  concentrating ;  and  even 
when  this  qualification  is  added  we  must  be  certain  to  sur- 
vey the  community  as  a  whole  and  take  account  of  the 
many  possible  movements  of  concentration  and  diffusion 
that  may  be  going  on  at  the  same  time.  The  richest  one 
per  cent,  of  the  population,  for  example,  may  be  constant- 
ly obtaining  a  larger  share  of  the  aggregate  wealth,  while 
the  lower  50  per  cent,  is  experiencing  the  same  good  for- 
tune. Under  such  circumstances  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  the 
* '  growing  concentration  of  w^ealth. "  As  a  matter  of  fact 
what  the  critics  really  desire  is  a  greater  concentration 
of  wealth,  concentration  in  the  hands  of  an  all-embracing, 
homogeneous  middle  class. 

Although    the    phrase    "increasing    concentration    of 


534  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

wealth"  is  thus  equivocal,  it  is  ordinarily  used  to  imply 
one  of  two  things— either  that  the  richer  classes  of  the 
community  are  obtaining  a  larger  share  of  the  national 
wealth,  or  that  the  distribution  of  Avealth  is  becoming 
more  unequal  with  the  passage  of  time.  When  used  in 
the  former  sense,  the  natural  way  to  test  the  assertion  is 
to  ascertain  whether  the  poorer  half  of  the  population  is 
receiving  a  larger  or  smaller  share  of  the  total  wealth  from 
time  to  time.  When  used  in  the  latter  sense,  the  obvious 
method  of  procedure  is  to  employ  one  of  those  indices  or 
co-efficients  which  statisticians  use  to  measure  dispersion 
from  the  common  type  or  average  ■}  because  what  we 
really  wish  to  know  is  whether,  with  regard  to  wealth,  the 
great  mass  of  men  are  growing  more  or  less  like  the  aver- 
age man.  It  seems  rather  superfluous  to  insist  upon  these 
apparently  obvious  facts,  but  it  is  true  that  hundreds  of 
pages  have  been  written  about  this  subject,  based  upon 
statistics  so  tabulated  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  discover 
what  proportion  of  the  total  wealth  was  owned  by  the 
poorer  half  of  the  population,  while  the  common  method 
of  presenting  statistics  upon  this  subject  utterly  disguises 
those  facts  which  the  student  most  desires  to  know. 

A  large  number  of  writers-  gravely  argue  about 
changes  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  from  the  increase 
of  persons  having  incomes  within  fixed  limits.  Dr.  Ely 
points  out  the  absurdity  of  this  attempt'  by  imagining  a 


•  Several  simple  co-effldents  of  dispersion  are  given  in  Rowley's  Ele- 
ments iif  Stalistics,  second  edition,  p.  K5(). 

Tf.  Mnyo-Smith.  t<t(itis1{cn  and  Economics,  p.  423  seq. 
"Erolulion  of  Industrial  Society,  p.  258  acq. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        535 

group  of  persons  having  incomes  represented  by  1,  3,  5, 
7,  9,  11,  13,  15,  17,  19,  in  the  first  epoch,  and  by  2,  6,  10, 
14,  18,  22,  26,  30,  34,  38,  in  the  second  epoch.  Of  course, 
as  the  income  of  each  individual  has  doubled,  the  distri- 
bution of  wealth  is  exactly  the  same  in  both  epochs.  Yet 
if  we  arrange  these  ten  individuals  in  fixed  classes,  and 
reason  about  the  ''concentration  of  wealth"  from  the  rate 
of  increase  in  the  higher  and  lower  classes,  we  should 
probably  conclude  that  some  great  change  had  taken 
place.  Dr.  Ely  illustrates  this  idea  with  the  following 
table : 


Classes 

Number  in 
first  period 

Number  in 
second  period 

0  and  less  than  5  dollars 

5  and  less  than  10      "      

10  and  less  than  15     "      

15  and  above 

2 
3 
2 
3 

1 

1 
2 
6 

With  this  preliminary  statement  concerning  the  method 
of  investigation,  we  may  pass  to  the  facts  of  the  case.  At 
this  point,  in  order  to  indicate  the  drift  of  the  following 
discussion,  we  may  anticipate  our  conclusions  by  the  sum- 
mary statement  that  while  the  data  upon  this  subject  are 
imperfect  and  tentative,  they  establish  a  strong  proba- 
bility that  the  proportion  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the 
very  wealthy  is  astonishingly,  if  not  alarmingly,  great ; 
but  they  also  indicate  with  less  certainty  that  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  is  becoming  less  rather  than  more  unequal. 

The  first,  and,  perhaps,  the  most  important  reason  for 


536  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

this  statement  is  found  in  the  striking  unanimity  among 
investigators  of  all  schools  and  beliefs  respecting  the  very 
high  proportion  of  wealth  held  by  the  very  wealthy 
classes.  We  can  not  cite  the  evidence  in  detail,  but  the 
reader  will  find  an  excellent  summary  of  it  in  the  final 
chapter  of  Statistics  and  Economics  by  Richmond  Mayo- 
Smith.  In  England  Sir  Robert  Giffen  estimated  in  1885 
that  the  richest  10  per  cent,  of  the  population  received 
nearly  one-half  the  total  income.  In  Prussia,  in  1902, 
59.66  per  cent,  of  the  population  belonged  to  families  hav- 
ing an  income  of  less  than  900  marks,  about  $225  a  year, 
and  this  figure  is  increased  to  64.61  per  cent,  if  we  include 
those  exempt  because  of  large  families  and  other  disabili- 
ties. Of  the  taxpayers  in  that  year,  the  richest  4.21  per 
cent,  paid  55.69  per  cent,  of  the  aggregate  income  taxes 
under  a  moderately  progressive  tax^  and  the  share  of  the 
aggregate  income  owned  by  the  richest  classes  seems  to  be 
steadily  increasing.^  Mr.  G.  H.  Holmes,  the  well-known 
Washington  statistician,  estimated  from  the  statistics  of 
farm  and  home  ownership  in  the  United  States,  that  in 
1890,  about  29  per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth  was  owned  by 
91  per  cent,  of  the  families,  and  71  per  cent,  by  the  other 
9  per  cent,  of  the  families.  In  1900  the  Wisconsin  State 
Tax  Commission  collected  statistics  of  the  estates  pro- 
bated in  six  counties  for  the  twelve  months  preceding, 
and  in  one  county  for  the  three  years  preceding.  Sta- 
tistics of  1,138  estates,  with  an  aggregate  appraised  value 

^Jahrbucher  fur  Naiionalokonomic  und  Statistik,  III  Folge,  25  Band, 
p.  799  8e(j. 

*See  Zeitschrift  dcr  Kon.  Prcuss.  ^tat.  Rurvaus,  1901*.  p.  vl.  seq. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS       537 

of  $10,154,385  were  secured.  This  investigation  having 
been  made  in  order  to  ascertain  the  undervaluation  of 
property,  and  not  to  obtain  light  on  the  distribution  of 
wealth,  the  Tax  Commission  omitted  all  estates  not  worth 
$500.  On  the  basis  of  the  estates  of  the  male  decedents 
in  six^  of  these  counties,  several  of  the  writer's  students 
prepared  an  estimate  of  the  distribution  of  wealth  among 
persons  dying  in  these  counties,  the  assumption  being 
made  that  the  excess  of  adult  male  deaths  (25  years  of 
age  and  over)  above  the  number  of  probated  estates,  rep- 
resented small  estates  which  escaped  probate,  and  that 
the  average  value  of  those  estates  was  $300.  Under  these 
hypotheses  it  was  found  that  91  per  cent,  of  male  deced- 
ents died  owning  property  worth  less  than  $7,500,  and 
that  together  this  91  per  cent,  of  the  decedents  ow^ned 
19.2  per  cent,  of  the  aggregate  wealth ;  while  9  per  cent, 
possessed  estates  worth  more  than  $7,500,  which  together 
constituted  80.8  per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth.  Of  course, 
all  the  statistics  cited  in  this  paragraph  are  in  the  nature 
of  estimates,  resting  in  some  cases  upon  the  most  hazard- 
ous hypotheses,  but  most  of  them  have  been  prepared  by 
well-known  scientists,  above  the  reproach  of  partiality, 
and  the  common  story  which  they  tell  of  great  concentra- 
tion in  the  hands  of  the  richest  families,  seems  incontro- 
vertible. 

That  it  is  perfectly  possible  for  a  small  class  of  the  very 
rich  to  acquire  a  constantly  increas^!ng  share  of  the  nat- 


*  Omitting  Eau   Claire   county   In   which   estates   probated   for   three 
years  bad  been  included. 


538  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

ural  income  or  wealth,  while  at  the  same  time  the  poorer 
half  of  the  population  is  enjoying  the  same  good  fortune, 
may  be  illustrated  by  examples  drawn  from  actual  studies 
in  the  distribution  of  wealth.  In  the  Bulletin  of  the  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  for  January,  1904,  Mr.  A.  F.  Davies  con- 
tributes a  most  interesting  study  of  the  distribution  of 
real  estate  ownership  in  five  representative  wards  of 
Philadelphia,  in  the  years  1855,  1865,  1875,  1885,  1895 
and  1900.  In  these  wards,  as  appears  from  the  following 
tabular  statement,  the  proportion  of  the  aggregate  real 
estate  held  by  the  one  per  cent,  of  the  hoi  ders  having  the 
largest  holdings  rapidly  increased  from  1855  to  1900, 
"when  throughout  the  selected  wards  practically  one- 
quarter  of  the  valuation  is  held  by  one  one-hundredth  of 
the  owners. ' '  Yet  Mr.  Davies  is  strongly  of  the  opinion 
that  the  wealth  represented  by  real  estate,  except  in  "Ward 
8,  which  is  a  business  and  fashionable  residence  section, 
has  become  more  evenly  distributed  with  the  passage  of 
years,  and  the  figures  bear  out  his  belief. 

Mr.  Davies,  like  most  investigators  of  this  subject,  clas- 
sifies the  property  holders  in  fixed  groups,  "under  $500," 
"$500  to  $1,000,"  etc.,  a  classification  which,  as  shown  on 
page  535,  prevents  any  very  exact  study  of  change  in  the 
concentration  of  wealth  except  by  applying  the  most 
laborious  processes  of  interpolation.  But  by  making  a 
few     safe  and  simple  estimates  it  is  possible  to  apply 

Mr.  Bowley  V  convenient  measure  of  dispersion  ^^^^y. 

*  See  Bowley's  Elements  of  Statistics,  second  edition,  p.  136. 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        539 

with  the  result  that  the  inequalities  of  land  ownership  are 
shown  to  have  increased  slightly  in  Ward  8  and  to  have 
decreased  a  great  deal  in  AVards  1  and  39  and  Wards  24 
and  34.  Certain  interesting  details  of  land  ownership  in 
these  wards  are  given  in  the  following  table,  which  must 
be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  all  its  possible  limitations 
and  defects,  among  which  must  be  numbered  the  facts 
that  the  values  are  assessed  values  and  hence  too  small, 
that  the  degree  of  under-assessment  is  probably  greater 
among  large  than  among  small  holdings,  and  that  the 
facts  apply  to  only  five  wards  in  one  city,  and  this  a  city 
in  which  real  estate  is  probably  more  evenly  distributed 
than  in  any  other  large  city,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  Baltimore,  in  the  United  States. 

About  ten  years  ago  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Sta- 
tistics of  Labor  attempted  to  obtain  some  clearer  light 
upon  the  historical  changes  in  the  distribution  of  wealth 
by  a  classification  and  study  of  the  estates  probated  in  the 
periods  1829-1831,  1859-1861,  1879-1881,  and  1889-1891. 
The  principal  results  of  this  study  are  summed  up  in 
Table  X  below.  Here  again  the  student  of  the  published 
returns  is  baffled  by  the  mistaken  method  of  tabulating 
the  estates  in  fixed  groups,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  ascer- 
tain exactly  what  the  richest  one  per  cent,  obtained,  what 
the  median  or  mean  estate  was,  or  what  the  poorest 
50  per  cent,  of  the  decedents  owned,  in  any  period.  But 
by  using  certain  graphic  methods  of  interpolation,  sim- 
ilar to  those  suggested  by  Professor  Pareto,^  it  is  possible 

^  Coura  d'Economie  Politique,  Vol.  II,  Bk.  III..  Cb.  I. 


§ 


-<!      ^ 


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One  per 

cent, 
largest 
liolders 

O  CO  lOOO*  o 
t-  50  t^  o  c»  o 

o  '^  ^  t>  1-  OS 

»-i  O  00  00  O  •<}< 

CO  O  00  W  00  CI 

OS  00  iO  o  2  00 

CO  OD  O  CO  -^  o 

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Tl  r-l  C(  CJ  d  CJ 

«o 

OJ3 

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o  CO  th  T}«  t-  CO 
OO'  00  t-^  os"  os'  •'jJ 

r-l 

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00  -^  CO  <M  CO  (M 

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tH  1-1  ci  O*  O*  CJ 

1-1 1-1 1-1  d  d  d 

$  1,545 
2,225 
4.015 
3,597 
3,931 
3,945 

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OS  O  00  ooo  d 

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i-H  CO  CO  •»*  iO 

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T-1    »-l    1-1    I**    »0 

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(b)  22,157 
(b)  24,877 
(b)  20,872 
(b)  18,214 
(b)  16,353 
15,757 

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^.^eo_  oo_  d_  1-1^  OS 

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Assessed 
value  of 
taxable 
property 

-»1<  CJ  OS  O  OJ  CO 
t-  CD  .-1  d  T-i  00 

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i>ooooo 

lO  CO  »0  LO  O  lO 

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t-  O  ooo  OS  lO 
I-  d  1-1  CO  00  GO 
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05  -<*<  »-<  IC  O  OS 
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MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS       541 

to  ascertain  approximately  the  meaning  of  the  figures. 
They  indicate  in  brief:  (a)  That  the  concentration  of 
wealth  in  the  upper  classes  was  very  great,  even  in  1830. 
but  that  the  proportion  of  the  total  wealth  owned  by  the 
richest  five  or  six  per  cent,  of  the  population  has  steadily 
increased,  although  it  was  somewhat  greater  in  1880  than 
in  1890;  (b)  that  the  general  distribution  of  wealth  was 
most  equable  in  1830,  and  least  so  in  1880;  (c)  that  the 
proportion  of  wealth  owned  by  the  poorer  half  of  the 
decedents  was  greatest  in  1860,  next  largest  in  1830, 
slightly  less  in  1890  and  considerably  less  in  1880;  (d) 
and  that  the  class  of  the  decedents  whose  relative  loss 
was  greatest,  was  that  of  the  moderately  rich,  the  class, 
which  if  the  decedents  were  arranged  in  their  order  of 
wealth,  would  fall  between  the  sixth  and  ninth  tenths. 

The  general  results  of  the  Massachusetts  investigation 
are  given  in  Table  X.  Their  general  uncertainty  is  in- 
creased by  the  fact  that  many  probated  estates  are  never 
inventoried  or  appraised,  that  the  appraised  values  are 
generally  too  low,  and  that  a  large  number  of  small 
estates  never  pass  through  the  probate  courts.  Notwith- 
standing all  these  defects,  such  figures  when  impartially 
used,  probably  furnish  a  better  basis  of  reasoning  about 
historical  movements  than  the  loose  general  impressions 
of  the  average  man,  who  really  knows  little  about  the  dis- 
tribution of  wealth  in  the  past,  and  who  is  apt  to  form  his 
opinions  concerning  that  subject  from  his  general  social 
philosophy. 

The  statistics  relating  to  Philadelphia  and  Massachu- 


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fM 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        543 

setts  agree,  both  with  each  other  and  the  general  opinion 
of  investigators,  in  assigning  to  the  very  rich— say,  the 
richest  five  per  cent,  of  the  population— an  astonishingly 
large  proportion  of  the  total  wealth,  and  in  indicating 
that  this  proportion  has  increased  in  the  last  half  or  three 
quarters  of  a  century.  They  disagree  in  regard  to  the 
general  uniformity  or  equality  of  the  distribution  of 
wealth.  Under  these  circumstances  the  safest  course, 
perhaps,  is  to  fall  back  upon  a  general  argument.  While 
the  few  millionaires  have  prospered  more  rapidly  than 
the  general  population  in  the  last  half  century,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  wages  have  more  than  doubled,  and  that 
millions  of  wage-earners  have  shared  in  this  good  fortune. 
Considering  the  great  rise  of  wages  and  the  enormous 
number  of  wage-earners,  it  would  be  a  matter  of  surprise 
if  they  had  not  only  secured  larger  incomes,  but  a  some- 
what larger  share  in  the  aggregate  income.  A  simple 
illustration  will  show  how  it  is  possible  for  the  very  rich 
to  sustain  a  vast  increase  of  wealth,  absolute  and  relative, 
without  trenching  on  the  share  of  the  lower  classes.  Let 
us  imagine  a  representative  social  group  of  100  persons  in 
1850  and  1900,  composed  of  three  classes :  a  lower  class 
of  50  persons,  an  upper  class  of  48  persons,  and  2  mil- 
lionaires. Assume  that  in  1850  the  lower  class  possessed 
5  per  cent,  of  the  wealth,  the  upper  class  85  per  cent.,  and 
the  millionaires  10  per  cent. ;  while  between  1850  and 
1900  the  total  wealth  of  the  group  increased  100  per  cent. 
If,  in  the  interval  of  50  years,  incomes  in  the  upper  clasp 
increase  20  per  cent.,  the  millionaires  may  obtain  an  in- 


544  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

crease  of  TTQi^  per  cent.,  and  still  leave  the  lower  class 
incomes  larger  by  101  per  cent.,  and  a  larger  share  of  the 
aggregate  income,  than  in  1850. 

Conclusion:  Back  of  the  question  of  fact,  lies  the  ques- 
tion of  ideal :  is  the  demand  for  a  more  equal  distribution 
of  wealth  justifiable  ?  The  disposition  of  the  writer  is  to 
answer  this  question  with  the  strongest  affirmative  pos- 
sible. Not  only  is  equality  a  sound  social  ideal,  but,  prop- 
erly understood,  it  is  the  only  sound  ideal.  No  one  can 
deny  that  the  existence  of  widely  separated  classes,  with 
enormously  disproportionate  economic  and  political 
power,  creates  problems  that  threaten  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  the  body  politic.  No  one  can  doubt  that  the 
successful  operation  of  a  democratic  government  is  facili- 
tated by  the  homogeneity  of  its  citizenship.  It  is  hard  to 
believe  that  any  wholesome-minded  person  could  even 
desire  to  be  set  apart  from  and  above  the  great  mass  of  his 
fellows,  leaving  to  them  the  unrelieved  drudgery,  secur- 
ing to  himself  the  unbroken  direction  of  industry. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  many  of  our  wisest  econo- 
mists think  otherwise.  "The  economic  ideal  of  the  fu- 
ture," says  Professor  Clark,  "is  the  one  which  will  com- 
bine inequality  of  outward  and  material  possessions  with 
a  constant  approach  to  equality  of  men's  inward  states, 
and  will  cause,  not  wealth,  but  well-being  to  be  democrat- 
ically shared."^  The  trouble  with  this  ideal  is  its  impos- 
sibility; there  can  be  no  similarity  of  "inward  states" 
when  the  inequality  of  "outward  and  material  posses- 

»  Iq  his  admirable  little  book,  The  Problem  of  Monopolv,  p.  12& 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        545 

sions"  is  as  glaring  as  it  is  now,  particularly  when  the 
laws  and  customs  concerning  inheritance  among  the  very 
rich  accentuate  and  widen  this  inequality.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  "inward  states"  of  the  day  laborer  who 
is  habitually  underfed,  and  the  millionaire  who  is  habitu- 
ally overfed,  depends  largely  upon  the  difference  in  their 
"outward  and  material  possessions,"  and  until  poverty  is 
extinct,  there  will  continue  to  be  important  inward  differ- 
ences arising  from  outward  inequalities. 

But  it  by  no  means  follows  that  we  are  to  attempt  to 
foist  equality  of  wealth  upon  inequality  of  merit  and  abil- 
ity. We  must  have  a  nearer  approach  to  equality,  but 
it  must  come  by  leveling  up,  not  by  leveling  down.  It  can 
be  secured,  permanently,  only  by  slow-paced  changes, 
making  for  the  more  equal  distribution  of  education  and 
opportunity.  We  have  tried  in  this  work  to  illustrate 
particularly  the  immensity  and  complexity  of  this  prob- 
lem (rf  labor.  It  touches  every  phase  of  social  life :  it  has 
lasted  throughout  the  ages.  The  supreme  lessons  from 
these  facts  seem  to  be  the  impossibility  of  solving  the  prob- 
lem all  at  once,  the  necessity  for  patience  tempered  with 
enthusiasm,  and  above  all,  the  futilitj-  of  that  kind  of 
superficial  reforms,  championed  by  a  certain  class  of  en- 
thusiasts common  to  all  parties,  who  are  impatient  of  de- 
tails, unaware  of  the  immensity  of  the  problem,  and  in- 
capable of  seeing  more  than  one  evil  and  one  reform  at 
the  same  time. 

In  the  present  chapter  we  have  discussed  briefly  the 
progress  of  the  working  classes  during  the  past  century, 
35 


546  LABOR  PROBLEMS 

In  Chapter  V  we  have  illustrated  the  obverse  side  of  the 
picture,  the  poverty  and  degradation  which  still  exist. 
It  is  plain  that  there  is  no  justification  for  content,  no 
ground  for  a  complacent  policy  of  inaction.  But  when 
one  looks  back  through  the  centuries  and  takes  a  broad 
view  of  the  rise  of  the  laboring  classes  from  slavery  to  a 
position  in  which,  fortified  by  trade  unionism,  they  are 
often  able  to  dictate  terms  to  the  employers  themselves,  it 
seems— to  borrow  an  idea  from  Mr.  Kidd— that  the  prog- 
ress of  the  working  classes  is  inevitable,  that  their  ulti- 
mate future  is  assured,  that  our  real  task  is  with  the  pre- 
cise problem  that  lies  next  at  hand,  the  exact  direction  of 
the  next  step,  the  minutiae  of  policy,  method  and  means. 
The  far  future  will  take  care  of  itself,  and  vague  specu- 
lation about  it  is,  if  not  injurious,  at  least  useless  as  a 
base  of  immediate  practical  action.  In  short,  to  use  con- 
crete terms,  we  may  be  moving  towards  socialism  or  we 
may  be  moving  towards  anarchism,  but  whithersoever  we 
do  move,  socialism,  anarchism  and  every  other  "ism" 
must  stand  or  fall  on  the  wisdom  of  its  immediate  pro- 
posals.    The  hope  of  the  hour  is  in  specific  social  reform. 

References  :  There  Is  a  vast  literature  on  this  subject,  but  a  work 
containing  a  critical  analysis  of  the  facts  with  an  impartial  investiga- 
tion of  the  causes  and  theory  of  progress  in  the  United  States,  remains 
to  be  written.  A  general  but  superficial  account  of  progress  during 
the  nineteenth  century  in  all  the  great  nations  of  the  world  is  given  In 
H.  de  B.  Gibbins'  Economic  and  Industrial  Progress  of  the  Century. 
More  detailed  accounts  of  the  changes  in  the  United  States  may  he 
found  In  C.  D.  Wright's  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States  ;  R. 
Lavasseur's  American  Workman ;  and  D.  A.  Wells'  Recent  Economic 
Changes.  Early  conditions  in  the  TTnlted  States  are  well  described  In 
Edward  Eggleston's  The  Transit  of  Ciiilization  and  J.  B.  McMaster'a 
ffiatory  of  the  People  of  the  I'nitetd  States,  the  latter  of  which  Is  well 
lammarlzed,  together  with  other  interesting  materials,  In  the  first  nine 


MATERIAL  PROGRESS  OF  WAGE-EARNERS        547 

chapters  of  John  Mitchell's  Organized  Labor.  By  far  the  best  short 
general  discussion  of  wages  Is  contained  In  the  10th  edition  of  the  En- 
cyclopedia Brltannlca,  Vol.  XXXIII,  article  "Wages";  for  a  more  thor- 
ough discussion  of  the  theory  of  wage  statistics  the  reader  may  con- 
Bult  A.  L.  Bowiey's  Wages  in  the  Initcd  Kingdom  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  while  the  American  statistics  may  be  found  in  the  sources 
quoted  in  the  text.  The  most  recent  studies  in  the  cost  of  living  are 
published  in  Bulletin  of  the  (V.  ^.)  Bureau  of  Labor.  No.  .^.'?,  and  in  the 
Thirty-Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics 
of  Labor.  The  distribution  of  wealth,  as  well  as  the  progress  of  the 
working  classes,  are  discussed  with  partisan  vigor  in  C.  B.  Spahr's  The 
Present  Distribution  of  M'calth  in  the  United  States  and  in  Edward  At- 
kinson's The  Distribution  of  Products  :  while  on  all  the  subjects  treated 
in  this  chapter,  statistical  discussions  may  be  found  in  Mayo-Smith's  Sta- 
tistics and  Economics,  where  short  bibliographies  are  given.  For  thor- 
ough discussions  of  the  theory  of  progress  and  the  factors  which  de- 
termine the  laborer's  share  of  the  industrial  product,  see  Marshall.  Prin- 
ciples of  Economics,  ch.  XII ;  Tierson,  Principles  of  Economics,  ch.  VI ; 
and  Clark,  The  Distribution  of  Wealth. 

SUPPLEMENTART    READINGS  : 

1.  Land  and  Labor  in  the  Early  Colonies."  Eggleston,  The  Tran- 

sit of  Civilization,  ch.  VI,  pp.  273-313. 

2.  "Labor  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  Emanci- 

pation Proclamation,"  Mitchell,  Organized  Labor,  ch. 
VIII,   pp.  .57-65. 

3.  "General  Economic  Progress  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  Co- 

nant.  Wall  Street  and  the  Country,  pp.  116-170. 

4.  Wages — Theory  and  Statistics.  Encyclopedia  Brittanica   (10th 

ed.),  Vol.  XXXIII,  pp.  716-729. 

5.  "Factors  Determining  Nominal    Wages,"   Levasseur,  American 

Workman,  ch.  VIII.  pp.  359-392. 

6.  Influence  of  Machinery  on  Labor,   Hobson,  Evolution  of  Mod- 

ern Capitalism,  ch.  VIII.  pp.  220-243. 

7.  "Factory  Legislation  Considered  with  Reference  to  the  Wages, 

etc..  of  the  Operatives  Protected  Thereby."  W^ood, 
Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society,  Vol.  65,  pp. 
284-324. 

8.  Distribution  In  the  United   States,   Past  and  Present,   Spahr, 

The  Present  Distribution  of  Wealth,  ch.  II,  III,  pp. 
24-70. 

9.  Statistics    of    Distribution,    Mayo-Smith,    Statistics    and    Eco- 

nomics, ch.  XIII,  pp.  416-458. 

10.  "Concentration    and    Diffusion    of    Wealth,"    Ely,    Evolution   of 

Industrial  Society.  Part  11,  ch.  VI,  pp.  255-270. 

11.  "Probable  Futurity  of  the  Laboring  Classes"   as  it  appeared, 

in  1848,  to  J.  S.  Mill,  Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
Bk.  IV,  ch.  VI,  VII,  pp.  494-510  (Routledge  ed.). 

12.  Theory    of    Progress.    Marshall.    Principles    of    Economics,    ch. 

XIII,  Sees.  9-19,  pp.  771-790  (3d  ed.), 


PPENDIX 


APPENDIX  A 


WOMAN  AND  CHILD  LABOR  LAWS  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES 


Minimum  Age  Limit 

Educational  Pro- 
visions (a) 

Illiterate 

Certifi- 
cates of 
School 
Attend- 

States 

Factories 

Stores 

Mines 

Children 
Can  not 
be  Em- 

ployed 
Under  (b) 

Required 
Under 

Alabama 

10(d) 

12 

Arkansas  

10(d) 

14 

14  (e)  (f) 

14 

California 

12 

12 

Colorado 

14 

14 

16(g) 

14(h) 

Connecticut  — 

14 

14 

16 

14(h) 

Delaware    

Florida  (i) 

Georgia 

•  *  •  • 

Idaho  

14 

Illinois 

14 

14 

14 

16 

14 

Indiana  

14 

14 

14 

16  (j)  (k) 

.... 

12 
12 

16'(g) 

16'(g) 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

1-«(1) 

.... 

14 

Louisiana 

12  (m) 

.  •  •  • 

•  •  •  • 

14(e) 

12 

15  (n) 

Maryland 

14  (0)  (1) 

.  - .  • 

12 

16  (p)  (q) 

Massachusetts. 

14 

14 

16  (r) 

14 

Michigan 

14 

14 

16  (s) 

Minnesota 

14 

14  (j) 

14 

16(1) 

14(1) 

Mississippi  (t). 

.... 

Missouri 

14 

12 

14  (g) 

•  •  ■  • 

Montana 

14 

16 

14 

Nebraska  

10  (u) 

10  (u) 

10  (u) 

14  (v) 

Nevada 

12'" 

14 '(j)" 

16'(w) 

14"     ' 

NewH'mpshire 

New  Jersey 

14 

14 

15 

New  Yorkfx)... 

14 

12  (y) 

16 

16 

North  Carolina 

12  (z) 

12  (as) 

North  Dakota.. 

12 

.... 

12 

_ 

14 

Ohio 

14 

14 

14 

16 

14  (bb) 

Oregon 

14 

14 

14 

16 

14 

Pennsylvania. 

13 

13 

14  (cc) 

16  (k) 

13  (k) 

Rhode  Island.. 

12 

12 

13 

South  Carolina 

ll(dd)(l) 

11  (dd) 

11  (dd) 

South  Dakota. 

.... 

14 

14  (ee) 

Tennessee 

14 

.... 

14 

Texas  

12 

16 

14  (fif)  (1) 
14*"" 

Utah 

lo"" 

lo"" 

14 

15"("e) 

Vermont 

Virginia 

12 

12 

Washington  ... 

12 (gg) 

12  (gg) 

12  (hh) 

16  (r)  (ii) 

15  (r)  (il) 

West  Virginia. 

12 

12 

Wisconsin 

14 

12  (y) 

14 

14 

Wyoming 

14 

551 


552 


APPENDIX  A 


Woman  and  Child  Labor  Laws  in  the  United  States. — {Continued) 


States 

Hours  (jj)                                                      1 

Male  "Young: 
Persons" 

Female  "Young 
Persons" 

Women 

Niffht  work 
prohibited 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticnt. ... 

12.  66w.  (kk) 
14.  lOd.  60w. 
18,  9d.  54w.  (r) 
16.  8d.  (11) 
le.lOd.  (r) 

12.  66w.  (kk) 
14,  lOd.  60w. 
18.  9d.  54w.  (r) 
16,8(1.(11) 
16.  lOd.  (r) 

Under  13 
Under  11 

lOd.  (r) 

21,     Sunrise    to 
sunset  (mm) 

21,    Sunrise     to 
sunset  (mm) 

Illinois  

16.  8d.  48w.  (nn) 
16.  lOd.  60w.  (k) 

16.  8fi.  48w.  (nn) 
18.  lOd.  60w.  (k) 

Under  16  (nn) 
Females 

Louisiana 

18,  lOd.  60w.  (oo) 
16,  lOd.  60w.  (n) 
16,  lOd.  (pp) 
18. 10d.58w.  (r) 

14,  Ed.  (nn) 

18.  lOd.  60w.  (ss) 

16,  lOd.  60w.  (nn) 

18,  lOd.  60w.  (oo) 
18.  lOd.  60w.  (n) 
16.  lOd.  (pp) 
18.  lOd.  68w.  (r) 

16.  9d.  (nn) 

21.  lOd.  60w.  (ss) 

16. 10(1.  60w.  (nn) 

iod.  eow.  (oc, 
lOtl.  mw.  (n)  (rr) 

Maryland 

Massachusetts.. 

Michiffan | 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

lOd.  58w.  (r) 
i6d.6bw!(nn)(rr) 

Women  and  min- 
ors (qq)                1 

Under  16  (n) 
Under  16  (nn) 

Under  16  (tt) 

Montana 

8d.  (nn) 

8d.  (nn) 

8d.  (nn) 
lOd.  60w. 

NewHampshire 
New  Jersey 

New  York....  j 

North  Carolina. 
North  Dakota.. 
Ohio 

is,  ib'd.  eow.  (n) 

18,  lOd.  55w. 

16,  9d. 

18.  lOd.  60w. 

16,9d.  54w.  (uu) 

18,  66w. 

14,  lOd.  (vv) 

18.  lOd.  55w.  (r) 

16,  lOd.  (nn) 

21.12d.60w.(ww) 

16,  lOd.  58w.  (n) 

18.  lOd.  60w.  (n) 

18.  lOd.  55 w. 

16.  9(i. 

18,  lOd.  60w. 

16,  9d.  54w.  (uu) 

18,  66w. 

14.  10(1.  rvv) 

18.  lOd.  55w.  (r) 

16,  lOd.  (nn) 

21. 12d.60w.(ww) 

16,  lOd.  58w.  (n) 

lOd.  60w.  (n) 
lOd.  55w. 
lOd.  60w. 

21.  lOd.  60w.  Cuu; 

Under  18  (e)(tt) 
)  Under    18    and 
>-    women(qq) 
J  Under  16  (uu) 

lOd.  (vv) 

S.  18,  b.  16  (nn) 
Under  Ifi (nn) 
Under  18  (tt) 

Pennsylvania... 
Rhode  Island... 
South  Carolina 
South  Dakota... 
Tennessee 

12d.  60w.  (ww) 
lOd.  58w.  (n) 

Under  12  (xx) 

14,  lOd.  (vv) 

14,  lOd.  (vv) 

lOd.  (vv) 

Under  14  (vy) 

Utah  

8d.  (nn) 
15,  lOd.  (n) 
14,  lOd. 

8d.  (nn) 
15,  lOd,  (n) 
14,  lOd. 
lOd, 

8d,  (nn) 

Vermont 

Virffinia 

Washinerton.... 

West.  Virp'inin 

lOd. 
lOd. 

Under  14  (n)(a:) 
Under  16  (tt) 

Wisconsin....  -j 
Wyominfi: 

18.  8d.  48 w.  (zz) 
16.  lOd.  (nn) 

18.  8d.  48w.  (zz) 
16,  lOd.  (nn) 

8d.  (rr) 

Under  16  (nn) 

A 


APPENDIX  A 


553 


(a) 
<b) 
(c) 

(d) 
(e) 
(f) 
(g) 
(h) 
(i) 

(J) 

(k) 

(1) 
(m) 
(n) 
(o) 
(P) 
(q) 
(r) 
(s) 
(t) 

(u) 

(V) 

(w) 

(X) 

(y) 

(z) 
(aa) 
(bb) 
(cc) 
(dd) 


(ee).  In 


(ff). 
(gg). 
(hh). 

(II). 

(JJ). 
(kk), 


In  all  occupations  nnless  otherwise  Indicated. 

Employment  is  usually  permitted  if  child  attends  night  school. 

Attendance  either  before  or  during  employment,  must  usually 
be  during  previous  year. 

Under  12  only  in  cases  of  extreme  poverty. 

In  manufacturing  establishments. 

16  in  mines. 

In  mines. 

16  if  illiterate. 

Under  15  may  not  be  employed  more  than  60  days  without 
consent  of  legal  guardian. 

Except  in  vacation. 

In  any  manufacturing  or  mercantile  establishment,  laundry, 
renovating  works,  bakery,  printing  oflice,   mine  or  quarry. 

Except  In  cases  of  extreme  poverty. 

14   for  girls. 

In  manufacturing  and  mechanical  establishments. 

Except  20  counties  and  canning  industries. 

Applies  only  to  Baltimore  and  Allegheny  County. 

14  in  mines. 

In   manufacturing,   mechanical  and  mercantile  establishments. 

In  any  manufacturing  establishment,  hotel  or  store. 

Boys  under  21  and  girls  under  18  may  not  be  employed  with- 
out consent  of  legal  guardian. 

Under  14  only  if  certificate  of  at  least  20  weeks'  school  at- 
tendance during  previous  year  is  presented. 

In  manufacturing,  mechanical,  industrial  or  mercantile  estal>- 
lishments. 

21  If  illiterate. 

No  boy  under  10  or  girl  under  16  can  sell  newspapers  in  cities 
of  the  first  class,  i.  e.,  New  Yoric  City  and  Buffalo. 

14  except  in  vacation. 

Except  in  oyster  canning  and  packing  manufactories. 
Except  where  not  more  than  10  men  are  employed. 

15  in  mines. 

14  about  mines;  16  in  mines. 

After  May  1,  1905,  the  age  limit  Is  to  be  12  years.  Any  child 
who  has  attended  school  at  least  4  months  during  the  cur- 
rent school  year  and  can  read  and  write  may  be  employed 
in  textile  establishments  during  June,  July  and  August, 
manufacturing,  mechanical,  or  mercantile  establishments 
or  mines. 

In  any  manufacturing  or  other  establishment  using  machinery. 

14  except  In  cases  of  extreme  poverty. 

12  about  mines;   14   in  mines. 

In  telegraph  or  telephone  offices. 

In  manufacturing  establishments  unless  otherwise  Indicated. 

The  hours  of  children  under  10  are  limited  to  48  per  week  If 
they  are  employed  at  night. 


\ 


554  APPENDIX  A 

(K).  In    any   manufacturing   establishment,   store   or   mine,   or   any 
occupation  deemed  uuhealthful  or  dangerous, 
(mm).   In  manufacturing  establishments  other  than  cotton  and  woolen 
mills. 

(nn).  In  all  occupations. 

(oo).  In  any  factory,  warehouse,  worlishop,  telephone  or  telegraph 
office,  clothing,  dressmaking  or  millinery  establishment,  or 
in  any  place  where  the  manufacture  of  any  kind  of  goods 
is  carried  on,  or  where  any  goods  are  prepared  for  manu 
facture. 

(pp).  In  any  manufacturing  business  or  factory  In  any  part  of  the 
State  or  in  any  mercantile  establishment  in  Baltimore. 

(qq).  Children  under  14  in  the  street  trades. 

(rr).  Contracts  for  overtime  allowed. 

(ss).  In  manufacturing  establishments  and  stores  employing  more 
than  10  persons. 

(tt).  In  bakeries. 

(uu).  In  any  mercantile  establishment,  business  office,  or  telegraph 
office,  restaurant,  hotel,  apartment  housf,  or  in  the  dis- 
tribution or  transmission  of  merchandise  or  messages. 

(vv).  Children  under  18  and  women  can  not  be  compelled  to  work 
more  than  these  hours. 
(ww).  In  any  manufacturing  establishment,  mercantile  industry,  laun- 
dry, workshop,  renovating  works,  or  printing  office. 

(xx).  In  any  factory,  mine  or  textile  manufactory. 

(yy).  If  illiterate. 

(zz).  In  tobacco  factories  ;  and  shall  not  be  compelled  to  work  in 
manufacturing  establishments, 


APPENDIX  B 


PROFIT  SHARING  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

1.  Casc/t  of  Abandotuncnt  of  Profit  Sharinp:  In  1809  Mr.  Nicholas 
Paine  Gilman  published  a  list  of  twenty-three  firms  in  which  profit 
sharing  was  supposed  to  be  in  force  at  that  time,  but  several  of  these 
appear  never  to  have  had  any  system  of  true  participation,  while  others 
have  abandoned  the  plan.  Taking  up  these  establishments  In  detail : 
(1)  The  Riverside  Press  has  merely  a  savings  bank  available  only  to 
its  employees,  while  (")  the  Century  Company  reports  that  "whatever 
experiments  we  have  made  In  this  direction  have  not  applied  at  all  to 
the  printing  or  manufacturing  of  our  publications  nor.  In  the  sense  in 
which  the  term  Is  generally  understood,  to  workmen  ;  but  only  to  our 
oflSce  help  and  the  people  engaged  in  clerical  work."  (3)  The  discon- 
tinuance of  the  system  practiced  by  the  Pillsbury  Mills  has  been  al- 
ready recorded.  (4)  In  the  Rumford  Chemical  Works  of  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  there  was  for  a  time  a  plan  for  the  reward  of  long  con- 
tinued loyal  service,  but  "this  could  not  properly  be  called  a  profit 
sharing  plan  Inasmuch  as  the  sums  paid  to  the  favored  employees  were 
not  determined  by  the  profits  of  the  business,  but  simply  from  the 
time  of  the  employee's  service  and  the  sums  earned  by  him."  Even 
this  plan,  however,  was  discontinued  several  years  ago.  (5)  The  Pub- 
lic Ledger  of  Philadelphia  also  denies  the  existence  of  any  system  of 
profit  sharing  In  Its  office;  (6)  Rand,  McNally  &  Company  of  Chicago 
state  that  "we  have  long  since  discontinued  the  profit  sharing  plan 
among  employees,  as  we  did  not  find  it  of  any  benefit;"  (7)  and  the 
Rice  and  Griffin  Manufacturing  Company  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts, 
report  that  "the  system  referred  to  is  not  at  present  in  operation  In 
our  works."  (8)  The  Hub  Clothing  Store,  of  Chicago,  says  that  its 
method  is  not  the  real  profit  sharing  system,  (0)  while  the  H.  K.  Por- 
ter Company  states  that  it  has  at  present  no  profit  sharing  system  in 
operation,  "as  we  get  at  the  same  results  to  mutual  advantage  of  our- 
selves and  workmen  by  means  of  piece  work,  to  a  very  large  extent." 
None  of  these  nine  companies,  however,  can  be  considered,  in  1904,  as 
examples  of  profit  sharing.  Moreover,  three  of  the  remaining  firms. 
P.  N.  Kuss  of  San  Francisco,  the  Columbus  Gas  Company,  and  the 
Broadway  Central  Hotel  of  New  York  City,  fail  to  answer  Inquiries  in 
regard  to  profit  sharing,  and  have  doubtless  abandoned  any  system  they 
may  have  practiced. 

There  remain,  then,  out  of  the  twenty-three  firms  composing  Mr. 
Oilman's  list,  only  eleven  In  which  profit  sharing  is  now  known  to  be 
In  force. 

Other  cases  of  profit  sharing  reported  by  Mr.  Monroe  as  among  the 
twelve  experiments  existing  in  1896  were  as  follows:  (1)  The  Wana- 
maker   Department   Store,    Philadelphia,    (2)    the   Scott   and   Holston 

555 


556  APPENDIX  B 

Lumber  Company  of  Duluth.  Minnesota.  (3)  the  firm  of  C.  G.  Conn^ 
manufacturer  of  band  instruments  at  Elkhart,  Indiana,  (4)  the  Bow- 
doin  Paper  Manufacturing  Company  of  Krunswiclt,  Maine,  and  (5)  tha 
Cumberland  Mills,  owned  by  S.  D.  Warren  and  Company.  Boston,  Mas- 
sachusetts. Of  these  the  first  pays  to  its  employees  a  percentage  on 
sales  during  the  Holiday  trade  of  each  December,  but  has  no  true  sys- 
tem of  profit  sharing  ;  the  second  "has  not  been  running  on  the  profit 
sharing  basis  for  the  past  ten  years;"  the  third  shared  profits  with 
employees  for  about  five  years  and  then  discontinued  the  plan,  "the 
results  not  being  what  had  been  hoped  for;"  the  fourth  "abandoned  the 
profit  sharing  system  some  years  ago  ;"  and  the  last  failed  to  reply  to 
inquiries.  These  apparently  add  nothing  to  the  list  of  existing  cases 
of  profit  sharing. 

In  addition,  Mr.  Monroe  reports  the  temporary  abandonment  of 
profit  sharing,  due  to  commercial  depression,  in  the  following  cases: 
(1)  The  Page  Belting  Company,  of  Concord,  New  Hampshire;  (2)  the 
Williamsport  (Pa.)  Iron  and  Nail  Company;  (3)  Ginn  and  Company, 
publishers,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts;  (4)  Pomeroy  Brothers,  manu- 
facturing chemists  of  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  (5)  tbe  Golden  Pressed 
and  Fire  Brick  Company,  of  Denver.  Colorado.  The  Page  Belting  Com- 
pany never  resumed  the  plan,  which  was  in  force  for  only  one  year, 
and  which  they  do  not  consider  to  have  furnished  them  with  any  prac- 
tical experience  in  profit  sharing.  The  Williamsport  Iron  and  Nail 
Company  is  not  continuing  the  system,  though  still  believing  in  the 
advantages  of  profit  sharing,  and  reports  that :  "We  never  gave  it  a 
fair  trial."  Ginn  and  Company  make  no  reply  to  inquiries.  The 
Golden  Pressed  and  Fire  Brick  Company  In  1891  made  an  offer  to  share 
50  per  cent,  of  its  net  profits,  over  and  above  5  per  cent,  interest  on 
capital,  and  allowing  no  salaries  for  management,  among  those  em- 
ployees who  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  company  for  at  least  six 
months,  the  share  of  each  to  be  dependent  upon  the  length  of  his  serv- 
ice and  the  amount  of  wages  received.  This  was  an  unusually  gener- 
ous proposition,  but  "unfortunately  all  building  trades  were  soon  af- 
fected by  the  conditions  that  resulted  in  the  panic  of  180,3.  and  there 
being  no  profit  on  the  basis  mentioned  the  offer  never  became  opera- 
tive." 

The  Pomeroy  Brothers  Company  adopted  a  plan  of  profit  sharing 
some  time  in  the  eighties  and  divided  at  first  ."j  per  cent,  and  after- 
wards 10  per  cent,  of  its  profits  among  the  employees  in  proportion  to 
the  wages  paid  each.  All  who  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  com- 
pany for  two  years  were  participants,  while  all  who  had  served  for  six 
months,  but  not  two  years,  might,  at  the  option  of  the  employers,  be 
admitted  to  share,  and  practically  all  such  were  so  admitted.  The 
company  offered  to  pay  6  per  cent,  interest  on  any  money  left  on  de- 
posit, in  the  expressed  hope  that  ultimately  the  men  would  own  stock 
in  the  business,  but  this  hope  was  disappointed.  In  1893,  and  for  a 
year  or  two  after,  the  profit  sharing  dividend,  whicn  had  previously 
run  from  one  week's  to  three  months'  salary,  was  so  small  as  not  to 
be  worth  dividing,  and  in  189.'">  a  stock  company  was  organized  and 
profit  sharing  abandoned.  This  is  evidently  a  case  of  the  distinct 
failure  of  the  profit  sharing  plan  to  accomplish  the  results  anticipated 


APPENDIX  B  557 

by  the  employers,  for  Mr.  Eltweed  Pomeroy,  the  president  of  the  com- 
pany, reports  : 

"At  the  beginning  I  was  enthusiastic  about  profit  sharing.  I  am  now 
convinced  that  it  Is  only  a  method  for  the  employer  to  show  his  good- 
will to  the  employees.  If  it  leads  into  co-operation  and  real  democracy 
in  the  conduct  of  business  it  is  admirable,  but  it  does  not  necessarily 
lead  into  that,  as  it  comes  wholly  from  above  and  Is  apt  to  be  accepted 
as  one  accepts  the  sunshine  or  any  benefit  that  one  has  not  woriced 
for.  I  think  the  men  when  they  first  got  It  were  a  little  bewildered 
but,  of  course,  thought  it  a  good  thing,  as  they  got  something  they  had 
not  expected.  But  few  of  them  really  understood  or  appreciated  the 
motive  which  made  us  divide  profits.  In  a  small  business  such  as  ours, 
employing  twenty  to  thirty  hands,  the  good-will  of  the  employer  can 
be  shown  far  better  by  turkeys  at  Christmas,  presents  with  a  word  of 
sympathy  In  times  of  special  need  or  at  a  marriage  or  something  of 
that  sort.  It  brings  in  the  human  element,  while  profit  sharing,  from 
Its  very  nature,  is  a  little  impersonal  and  smacks  of  machinery  ;  and 
unless  the  employer  gives  his  men  a  clear  statement  of  the  percentage 
of  profits  he  agrees  to  divide,  with  the  right,  which  he  must  see  they 
exercise,  for  the  men  to  go  over  his  books,  and  see  that  his  statement 
of  profits  is  correct,  profit  sharing  is  just  as  much  a  gratuity  from  the 
employer  to  the  employee  as  turkeys  at  Christmas,  and  it  is  minus  the 
personal  feeling  at  the  opportune  time.  In  large  factories  where  from 
the  size  the  personal  element  must  be  absent,  It  may  be  the  only  avail- 
able method." 

2.  Cases  of  Profit  Shai-mg  With  Higher  Employees:  (a)  The  Ameri- 
can Smelting  and  Refining  Company  adopted  In  1902  a  plan  which  gives 
"to  certain  of  its  general  employees  in  New  York  and  Denver,  the 
managers,  superintendents  and  assistant  managers  or  superintendents 
of  the  several  plants  of  the  company,  to  the  smelting  works  foremen 
and  other  foremen,  together  with  chemists  and  assayers,  ore  purchas- 
ing agents,  and  a  number  of  others,  an  opportunity  to  participate  in  a 
portion  of  the  profits  earned  by  the  company."  Obviously  only  the 
more  important  employees  are  included.  The  amount  to  be  set  aside 
for  distribution  varies  according  to  the  total  earnings  of  the  company  ; 
the  amount  of  wages  forms,  with  few  exceptions,  the  basis  of  distribu- 
tion ;  In  general,  employees  must  have  been  In  the  service  of  the  com- 
pany for  the  entire  fiscal  year  to  participate ;  and  the  bonus  is  paid 
wholly  in  cash. 

(b)  The  Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Company,  a  prominent  mercantile  house 
of  Boston,  has  recently  begun  a  system  of  sharing  profits,  which,  how- 
ever, includes  only  the  chiefs  of  departments  and  their  sub-heads. 
"Whenever  an  executive  has  been  connected  with  one  department  only, 
he  shares  directly  in  the  profits  of  that  department ;  where  he  has 
been  connected  with  more  than  one  department,  or  the  whole  store, 
the  profits  of  one  or  more  are  offset  by  the  losses  of  the  remaining  de- 
partments In  which  he  Is  Interested  "  Th-'s  some  may  receive  profits 
while  others  do  not.  This  company  has  also  a  plan  for  giving  em- 
ployees a  percentage  on  sales,  similar  to  that  of  the  Wanamaker  and 
other  mercantile  companies,  but  this  is  gain,  and  not  profit  sharing. 

(c)  The  Carolina  Savings  Bank  of  Cliarlestoa,  Soutli  Caroliua.  prao 


558  APPENDIX  B 

tices  fl  very  successful  system  of  profit  sharing.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  this  experiment,  lilie  those  of  the  various  French 
insurance  companies,  is  among  employees  of  a  high  degree  of  intelli- 
gence, and  does  not  apply  to  the  working  class.  The  plan  is  simple. 
"After  paying  all  expenses,  and  before  placing  the  balance,  which  we 
have  earned,  to  the  credit  of  profit  and  loss  account,  or  making  divi- 
dends, a  certain  percentage  is  divided  among  the  employees  of  the 
bank,  and  they  each  average  as  much  as  1~>  per  cent,  (and  possibly  in 
some  future  years  it  muj'  run  as  high  as  -U  per  cent. J  of  their  suiaries." 


APPENDIX  C 


EARNINGS  AND  UNEMPLOYMENT  IN  1901 

The  following  information  concerninsr  earnings,  unemployment  and 
other  subjects  treated  in  Chapters  V  and  XIII,  is  taken  from  the  Seven' 
teenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  which  unfortunately 
appeared  too  late  to  be  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  book. 

The  investigation  described  in  the  above  Report  was  confined  to  the 
families  of  wage  workers  and  of  persons  on  salaries  not  exceeding  $1200 
a  year.  The  budgets  of  25,440  families,  representing  124,108  persons,  were 
secured,  covering  a  period  of  12  months,  which  period,  in  the  average  case, 
seems  to  have  coincided  approximately  with  the  calendar  year  1901.  Prac- 
tically the  whole  United  States  was  covered  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the 
results  thoroughly  typical  of  average  conditions  among  industrial 
workers. 

The  general  prosperity  of  this  class  of  workers  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  of  the  25,021  families  containing  wives,  only  &.ti8  per  cent,  were  at 
work,  the  latter  contributing  $129  a  year  to  the  family  income.  Taking  the 
children  10  to  15  years  of  age,  in  order  to  test  the  extent  of  child  labor,  and 
the  disposition  to  put  children  to  work,  it  appears  that  9.67  pei  cent,  of 
such  children  were  at  work,  85.00  per  cent,  at  school,  1.34  per  cent,  both  at 
work  and  at  school,  and  3.99  per  cent,  at  home.  The  agents  reported  that 
61  per  cent,  of  the  homes  were  "well  furnished,"  27  per  cent  "fairly  well 
furnished,"  and  12  per  cent,  "poorly  furnished". 

The  statistics  of  unemployment  confirm  in  a  general  way  those  given  in 
Chapter  V.  Out  of  24,402  heads  of  families,  12,248  lost  no  time  from  unem- 
ployment in  the  twelve  months  covered,  while  12,154  lost  on  average  9.43 
weeks.  For  the  whole  number,  24,402,  this  would  amount,  on  an  average,  to 
4.7  weeks  of  unemployment.  The  statistics  of  causes  of  unemployment 
show  that  of  the  unemployed  heads  of  families,  34.62  per  cent,  were  idle 
because  they  could  not  get  work,  30.96  per  cent,  because  of  sickness  or 
sickness  and  other  causes  combined,  13.05  per  cent,  because  of  slack  work, 
6.45  per  cent,  because  of  vacation,  4.30  per  cent,  because  the  establishment 
was  closed,  2.25  per  cent,  because  of  bad  weather,  2.07  per  cent,  because  of 
strikes,  1.66  per  cent,  because  of  accidents,  and  4.64  per  cent,  because  of 
other  reasons. 

The  statistics  of  yearly  earnings  of  the  heads  of  families  are  given 
below.  The  arithmetic  average  of  such  earnings  was  $621  a  year;  the 
the  median  income  about  $615.  The  average  yearly  income,  from  all 
sources,  of  the  25,440  families  was  $750,  while  among  the  11,156  normal 
families— families  including  no  boarders  or  lodgers  and  having  no  children 
over  14  years  of  age— the  average  income  from  all  sources  was  $651.  The 
average  expenditure  was  $699  per  family;  12,816  families  had  a  surplus 
averaging  $121  a  year,  while  4,117  families  had  a  deficit  averaging  $66  • 
year. 

559 


560 


APPENDIX  C 


In  the  calculations  concerning  eamingrs  and  unemplojTnent  cited  above, 
the  very  small  number  of  heads  of  families  (0.72  per  cent.)  who  were 
invalids  or  idle  during  the  whole  year,  were  omitted;  and  in  the  investiga- 
tion as  a  whole  no  attempt  was  made  to  secure  budgets  of  farm  laborers, 
although  130  farm  laborers  were,  incidentally,  included.  These  facts 
explain  the  differences  between  the  results  given  here  and  those  given  in 
Chapter  V.  The  present  statistics  indicate  that  among  heads  of  families 
containing  a  very  few  farm  hands  and  a  considerable  number  of  salaried 
men.  the  average  period  of  unemployment  amounted  to  4.7  weeks.  This  sup- 
ports very  strongly  the  statement  made,  or  suggested,  in  Chapter  V  that 
in  normal  years  among  industrial  workers,  approximately  ten  per  cent,  of 
the  working  time  is  lost  in  unemployment.-  and  that  the  causes  of  such  un- 
employment seem  to  be  predominantly  industrial. 

The  present  statistics  indicate  that  the  mean  annual  earnings  of  the 
heads  of  families  was  about  $615.  The  mean  income  of  wage  earners,  in 
Chapter  V,  were  estimated  at  something  less  than  $436.  This  discrepancy 
may  indicate  a  real  error  in  the  calculations  in  Chapter  V.  but  more  prob- 
ably it  results  from  the  inclusion  of  salaried  men  in  the  investigation  of 
the  Bureau  of  Labor,  and  the  practical  exclusion  of  farm  laborers.  That 
the  difference  in  classes  could  account  for  the  difference  in  the  mean 
incomes,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  median  income  of  the  130  farm 
laborers  investigated  was  only  $320,  while  there  were  in  the  United  States, 
at  the  last  census.  3,747.668  agricultural  laborers,  of  whom  1,779,648  did  not 
belong  to  the  family  for  which  they  worked. 

NtJMBER  AND   PERCENTAGE   OP    HeAD.S   OF   FAMILIES    IN    EaCH    GrOUP   OP 

Classified  Earnings 


Group 

Number 

Per  cent. 

Group 

Number 

Percent. 

Under  $100 

$100-$199 

200-299 

300-  399 

400-499 

600-  6W 

90 

270 

736 

2.043 

4,096 

4.369 

0.37 
1.11 
3.02 
•8.37 
16.79 
17.90 

$600-$699 

700-799 

800-899 

900-  999 

1000  or  over... 
Total 

4,539 
4.113 
1,505 
1.503 
1,317 
a4,402 

17.86 
16.85 
6.17 
6.16 
5.40 

100.00 

INDEX 


Accidents,  Industrial,  5,  159-160, 
482-486.  See  also  Employers' 
liability. 

Accident  Insurance   law,   487-488. 

Acme  Sucker  Rod  Company,  profit 
sharing  plan  of,  359,  362-363. 

Adams,  C.  F.,  "Compulsory  Arbi- 
tration," cited  331. 

Adams,  H.  C,  Economics  and 
Jurisprudence,  cited  501. 

• —  Relation  of  the  State  to  In- 
dustrial Action,   15,   501. 

Agreements,  joint.  See  Collec- 
tive bargaining. 

Agricultural  colleges,  444. 

Agriculture,  Bulletin  of  the  U.  8. 
Department  of,  cited  158,  514. 

■ —  labor  of  children  In,  40,  59- 
60,  62. 

Chinese    and    Japanese 

In,  105. 

women    In,    38,    48,   53, 

54. 

Aldrlch  Report,  cited  509,  514, 
515,  517. 

Allen  V.  Flood,  cited  202. 

American  Correspondence  School 
of  Textiles.  451. 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
216,     219,     221-222,     230,    232, 


246,  280. 


224. 


growth    of,    221-222. 
policies  of,   222. 
membership  of,  223, 


* Jurisdiction  disputes 

in,  234,  235,  240. 
American      Federationlst,      cited 

170,  285. 
American  Labor  Union,  225,  235. 
American  Protective  Union,  397. 

86  £61 


American  Smelting  and  Refining 
Company,  profit  sharing  plan 
of,  360,  557. 

Anti-Trust  Act,  cited  195. 

—  —  labor  organizations  ex- 
empted from  operation  of,  477- 
478. 

Apprentices,    education    of,     442- 

443. 
Apprenticeship,  decline  of  system 

of,  435-440. 

—  gild'system  of,  9,  10,  11. 

—  labor  union  regulation  of,  247- 
248,  437-439. 

—  legislation  concerning,  436-437. 

—  pauper,  21-22,   25. 

—  present  status  of,  440-442. 
Arbitration,    acceptance    of,    209, 

298. 
— •  attitude      of      labor      unions 
towards,  268. 

—  compared  with  conciliation, 
295. 

- —  compulsory,  clauses  In  fran- 
chises requiring.  328-329. 

conclusions  concerning  plan 

proposed  for  U.  S.,  325-331. 

defined,  289. 

• In   monopolistic  Industries, 

326-331. 

In  New  Zealand,  319-325. 

defect   of   system   of,    323- 

324. 

—  —  enforcement  of  awards, 
320-321. 

nature  and  scope  of  awards, 

321-323. 

success  of,  324. 

legal    dlfllcultles    of,    32«- 

327. 


563 


INDEX 


Arbitration,  compulsory,  sugges- 
tions for  law  of,  ,3'28-330. 

- —  court  of,  In  New  Zealand,  320. 

*—  defined,  288,  289. 

Arbitration  department,  British 
Board  of  Trade,  292. 

Arbitration,  enforcement  of  award, 
297. 

—  failure  of,  314-315. 

• voluntary  state,  299. 

•-r  governmental  in  England,  289- 
292. 

—  legislation  concerning,  in  Eng- 
land, 291-292. 

—  in    the    United    States, 

296-297. 

—  origin  of,  290-292. 

—  private  boards  of,  292. 

• —  Report  of  the  (New  York) 
Board  of  Mediation  and,  cited 
278,  329. 

—  secondary  and  primary,  288- 
289,  306-307. 

—  State  boards  of,  295-301. 
^—  success  of,  294-295. 

—  ultimate  form  of  organized, 
308. 

Arbitration.  See  also  Concilia- 
tion. 

Armour  Institute,  450. 

Arthur,  P.  M.,  230. 

Ashley,  The  Adjustment  of  Wages, 
cited  286. 

• —  Introduction  to  English  Eco- 
nomic History  and  Theory,  cited 
16. 

—  "Journeymen's  Clubs,"  cited 
215. 

Atltlns  et   of.   v.   Fletcher  Co.   ct 

al.,  cited  202. 
Atkinson,      The     Distribution     of 

Products,  cited  547. 
Auchmuty,    Col.   Kichard    T.,   446, 

447. 
Auten,    "Sweating   System   In   the 

Garment    Trades    of    Chicago," 

cited  141. 

Backhouse,  Judge,  324. 

Baker    Manufacturing     Company, 


profit  sharing  plan  of,  359,  367- 
368. 

Baker,  R.  S.,  articles  in  McClure'a 
Magazine,  cited  213,  286. 

Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  ap- 
prenticeship system  of,  441. 

Ballard  and  Ballard  Company, 
profit  sharing  plan  of,  359,  365- 
366. 

Bargaining,  collective.  See  Col- 
lective Bargaining. 

Baron  de  HIrsch  Trade  Schtol, 
447. 

Barr  v.  Essex  Trades  Council, 
cited  199. 

Beattle  v.  Callahan,  cited  192. 

Bebel,  August,  225. 

Bemis,  History  of  Cooperation, 
398,  400,  431. 

—  "The  Relation  of  Labor  Or- 
ganization to  the  American  Boy 
and  to  Trade  Instruction,"  cited 
460. 

Billon  ct  Isaac,  profit  sharing  plan 
of,  339-340. 

"Birds  of  Passage,"  91-92.  108. 

Birmingham  Trades  Combination, 
250-252,  263. 

Birrel,  Law  of  Employers'  Liahil 
ity,  cited  501. 

Black,  References  on  the  History 
of  Labor  and  fiome  Contempo- 
rary Labor  Problems,  cited  15- 
16. 

Blacklist,  200-202,  283. 

—  laws  prohibiting,  200-201. 

Blackmar,  "Two  Examples  of  Suc- 
cessful Profit  Sharing,"  cited 
378. 

Bliss,  Encyclopedia  of  Social  Re- 

form,  cited  170. 
Boehmert,  Dr.,  358. 
Bolen,  Getting  a  Living,  cited  16, 

218,  431,  459. 
Bon   Marche,    profit   sharing  plan 

of,  350-352. 
Booth,    Life    and    Labor    of    the 

People,  cited  67,  114,  141,  142, 

14.3,    144,    148,    15.3,    154,    100, 

168,  17.0,  mU  286. 


INDEX 


563 


Bosanquet,  The  Contemporary  Re- 
view, cited  146. 

—  Strength  of  the  People,  cited 
170,  171. 

Bourne  Mills,  profit  sliaring  plan 
of,  330,  359,  364-365. 

Bowley,  Elements  of  Statistics, 
cited  534,  538. 

• —  Journal  of  the  Royal  Statis- 
tical Society,  cited  154. 

—  Wages  in  the  United  King- 
dom in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
cited  547. 

Boycott,    178,    19G-199,    245,    266- 

267,  283. 
• —  attitude  of  labor  organizations 

towards,  220. 

—  defined,  176,  196-197. 

—  legality  of,  197-199. 

—  statutes  prohibiting,  198. 
• —  varieties  of,  197. 

Boyle,  "The  Union  Label,"  cited 
286. 

Brace,  First  Century  of  the  Repub- 
lic, cited  16. 

Brewster  and  Company,  profit 
sharing  plan  of,  358-359. 

Briggs,  Messrs.,  profit  sharing  plan 
of,  340,  344-345,  355,  356. 

Brisbane,  Albert,  217. 

Britannia  Languens,  cited  11. 

Brook  Farm,  217. 

Broolcs,  "Origin  and  Development 
of  Compulsory  Insurance,"  cited 
501. 

—  The  Social  Unrest,  cited  16. 

Bruce,  Economic  History  of  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Seventeenth  Cent- 
ury, cited  16. 

Budgets,  family,  526. 

Building    and    Loan   Associations, 

391-394. 
■ bearing      on      labor 

problem,  393-394. 

plan  of.  392. 

. statistics  of,  393. 

Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor, 

Mass.,  cited  331,  540. 
I —  — New        York, 

cited  192,  331. 


Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor, 

U.  8.,  cited  30,  34,  37,   61,   62, 

64,  102,  114,  192,  199,  201,  202. 

212,    292,    295,    307,    313,    317, 

319,    350,    431,    470,    475,    478, 

484,   487,  500,   501,  514.  538. 
Bullocli,  "The  Closed  Shop,"  cited 

286. 
Bureau   of   Labor    Reports,    State, 

cited. 

Iowa,  378. 

—  —  —  —  Maine,  345. 

■  Maryland,  140. 

— Massachusetts,    161, 

167,    169,    170,    286,    304,    377, 

390,  501,  504,  524,  547. 

Minnesota,  459. 

. —  —  —  —  Nebraska,  459. 

New  Jersey,  234. 

New    York,   54,   137, 

141,    165,    170,    178,    179,    190, 

459,  482,  486,  501,  516. 
. Pennsylvania,      132, 

140. 

— Wisconsin,  140,  459. 

Bureau  of  Labor  Reports,   U.   S.. 

cited    16,    111,    150,    170,    285, 

445,    447,    448,    459,    500,    501. 

547. 
Bureau  of  Labor,  V.  S.,  Bulletin. 

See  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of 

Labor. 
Burns,  John,  quoted,  167,  266. 
Busher,    Ethnic    Factors    in    the 

Population  of  Boston,  cited  112. 

Cabot,  "An  Instance  of  Profit 
Sharing,"  cited  378. 

Cabot  Manufacturing  Company, 
profit  sharing  plan  of,  366-367. 

Calkins,  Sharing  the  Profits,  cited 
377. 

California  School  of  Mechanical 
Arts,  446,  447. 

Campbell,  Women  Wage-Earners, 
cited  67. 

Capital  and  labor,  harmony  of  In- 
terest between,  301-302. 

• —  ownership,  in  producers'  coop- 
eration, 387-388. 


564 


INDEX 


Capitalism,  genesis  of,  7,  8-9,  12. 

Capitalist  system,  4-5,  9,  14,  215. 

Carolina  Savings  Bank,  profit 
sharing  plan  of,  360,  557-558. 

Cash  payments,  under  consumers' 
cooperation,  384,  399. 

Census  of  the  United  States,  cited 
26-30,  66,  111,  157,  158,  159, 
170. 

Chalx,  M,,  profit  sharing  plan  of, 
343. 

Charities,  Reports  of  the  New 
York  State  Board  of,  cited  170. 

Charities,  Symposium  on  Immi- 
gration, cited  111. 

Charity,  relation  to  the  sweating 
system,  137-138. 

Chelsea  Jute  Mills,  child  labor 
test  case,  34. 

Cheyney,  Industrial  and  Social 
History  of  England,  cited  16. 

Child  labor,  accidents,  63. 

ages,  21,  22,  26,  58-60. 

• agreement  of  Georgia  man- 
ufacturers to  dispense  with,  36. 

agriculture,  40,  59-60,  62. 

—  —  census  figures  for  1890  In- 
validated, 26. 

educational  value  of,  64-66. 

effect  of  regulation  of  ap- 
prenticeship on,  247. 

evils  of,  20,  44-47,  58-64. 

factory  conditions  In  Eng- 
land, 19,  20-22. 

■  geographical       distribution 

of,  28-29,  44. 

• health    conditions,    44,    46, 

62-64. 

hours,  21,  22.  26,  61,  62. 

Increase  In,  29,  43,  44. 

—  —  In  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, 40-47,  61,  62,  63. 

in  mercantile  establish- 
ments, 61. 

in  the  South,  40,  45-47,  59- 

61. 

—  —  in  sweated  industries,  126- 
127. 

—  —  In  tobacco  factories,  61,  63- 
64. 


Child   labor,    in   urban   and    rural 

districts,  44. 
Child    labor    legislation,     Chelsea 

Jute  Mills,  test  case,  34. 

In  England,  22-24. 

in  U.  S.,  25,  30-37,  469, 

551-554. 

constitutionality  of,  30. 

enforcement  of,  33-35. 

—  —  —  recommendation  of  In- 
dustrial Commission  concern- 
ing, 37. 

—  —  —  weaknesses  of,  35-37. 

.  night  work,  45,  61-62. 

occupations,  37-47. 

rise  of  the  problem  in  the 

United  States,  24-30. 

• statistics  of,  27-28,  29-30. 

Chinese,  concentiatlon  In  particu- 
lar localities  of,  103-104. 

—  employment  In  agriculture  oi, 
105. 

—  —  on  railroads  of,  104-105. 

—  Exclusion  Act,  100,  105-107. 
— difficulty      of      enforce- 
ment, 106. 

weakness  of,  106-107. 

—  Immigration,  99-107. 

—  labor  in  San  Francisco,  104. 

—  numbers  in  United  States,  101- 
102. 

—  occupations  of,  102-105. 

—  wages  of,  104. 

Citizens'  Industrial  Association  of 

America,  280,  284. 
Civic  ,  Federation,    National.     See 

National  Civic  Federation. 
Civil  War,  effect  on  woman  labor, 

26. 
Ciaghorn,  "Foreign  Immigrant  In 

New  York  City,"  cited  111. 
■ —  "Immigration  and  Pauperism," 

171. 
Clark,  J.  B.,  "Authoritative  Arbi- 
tration," cited  331. 
Clark,  J.   B.,  The  Distribution  of 

Wealth,  547. 
Clark,     J.    B.,     The    Problem    of 

Monopoly,  cited  286,  544. 


INDEX 


665- 


Clark,  V.  S.,  "Labor  Conditions  In 
New  Zealand."  cited  319,  324, 
501. 

Clarke,  Isaac  Edwards,  "Indus- 
trial and  Technical  Training," 
459. 

Class,  permanent  status  of  wage 
earning,  5,  6,  12,  14,  215. 

Class  struggle,  5,  301-302. 

Closed  shop,  favored  by  labor  or- 
ganizations, 246. 

—  —  conclusions  respecting,  252- 
255. 

Clothing  industry.  See  Sweating 
System. 

Coal  mining  industry,  immigrants 
in.  See  Immigrants  In  the 
coal  mining  industry. 

Collective  action,  progress  of 
working  class  dependent  on, 
205. 

Collective  bargaining,  223,  226, 
227,  237-238,  243-244,  245,  259, 
266,  268,  272-273,  277-278,  285, 
289,  301-305. 

compulsory,  330. 

. local  trade  agreements  for, 

305. 

■ national   trade  agreements 

for,  306-307. 

origin  of,  302-303. 

probable  future  of,  313-314. 

and  trade  arbitration,  com- 
parison of  England  and  the 
United  States,  312.  317. 

■ defects  of,  326. 

statistics  of.  316-319. 

. See  also  Joint  conferences 

and  Trade  boards  of  arbitration. 

Collet,  "Women's  Work  in  Lon- 
don," cited  67. 

Columbus  Railway  and  Light 
Company,  profit  sharing  plan 
of,  344,  359,  361. 

Cameron  Company,  A.  S.,  profit 
sharing  plan  of,  359. 

Commission  on  Labor,  Fifth  and 
Final  Report  of  the  Royal,  cited 
155,  161. 

Commission  on  Manual  and  Indus- 


trial Education,  Mass.,  Report 
of,  cited  4.59. 

Commissioner  of  Edueation, 
United  States,  Report  of,  cited 
454,  459. 

Commissioner-General  of  Immi- 
gration, recommendations  of, 
98-99,  107. 

Commissioner  of  Labor,  se* 
Bureau  of  Labor. 

Commons,  J.  R.,  "Foreign^Bom 
Labor  in  the  Clothing  Trade," 
cited  140. 

■ —  "Immigration  and  It»  Eco- 
nomic Effects,"  111. 

■ —  Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco- 
nomics, 313. 

—  "Racial  Composition  of  th« 
American  People,"  cited  88,  111. 

—  Restriction  of  Output,  cited 
285. 

Commonwealth  v.  Hunt,  cited  190. 

Commonwealth  v.  Judd,  cited  188. 

Communistic  experiments,  217. 

Compagnle  d'Assurance  G6n6rales, 
profit  sharing  plan  of,  337. 

Compensation,  workmen's.  See 
Employers'  liability. 

Compton,  Henry,  304. 

Compulsory  arbitration.  See  Ar- 
bitration, compulsory. 

Compulsory  education,  32. 

Compulsory  insurance,  488,  489, 
491,  492. 

Conant,  Wall  Street  and  the  Coun- 
try, cited  547. 

Concentration  of  wealth,  6,  379, 
532-544. 

Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Act 
of  1892,  French,  295. 

—  and  Arbitration  for  the  Manu- 
factured Iron  and  Steel  Trade 
of  the  North  of  England,  Rules 
and  By-laws  of  the  Board  of, 
303,  308-312. 

—  defined,  288. 

—  See  also  Arbitration. 
Congress.       Industrial,       of       the 

United  States,  218. 


566 


INDEX 


Consells  de  Prudhomme,    French, 

292-295. 
Conspiracy  doctrine,  187-189. 
Conspiracy     and     Protection     of 

Property  Act,  466. 
Consumers'       Cooperation,       cash 

payments  In,  384. 

defined,  380. 

development  of,  394,  395. 

essential  features  of,  381. 

growth  and  present  status 

in  the  United  States,  401-407. 
• history  of.  In  England,  394- 

397.  381. 
■ history    of,    in    the   United 

States,  397-401. 
■ methods  of  dividing  profits 

in,  382-383. 

prices  in,  383-384. 

• share  of  employees  in,  384- 

385. 

success  of,  420. 

• —  . —  weakness  of,  427-429. 
Consumers'  League,  140. 
Contract,    enforcement    of    labor, 

476. 

—  freedom  of,  30,  32,  326,  327, 
463,  466. 

—  labor,  cooperative  association 
for,  410-411. 

Contract  labor  laws,  91,  93,  94, 
95,  97. 

■ evasion  of,  by  Japa- 
nese, 101. 

Cooke,  Law  of  Trade  and  Labor 
Combinations,  cited  212. 

Cooper  Union.  455. 

Cooperation,  aim  of,  379-380. 

—  commercial  status  of,  419-425. 

—  conclusions  concerning,  426- 
431. 

—  consumers'.  See  Consumers' 
cooperation. 

—  different  forms  of,  380-381. 

—  farmers',  380. 

- —  individualist  and  federalist 
schools  of,  389-390. 

—  in  Europe,  397. 

—  in  France,  387,  408-410. 

—  in  Kansas,  402-403,  404. 


Cooperation  in  New  England,  402" 
404. 

—  in  the  North  Central  States, 
402,  403,  405-407. 

—  in  the  Pacific  Coast  States, 
402-403,  404. 

—  in  the  United  States,  History 
of,  cited  401.  431. 

—  Knights  of  Labor  and,  220, 
221. 

—  present  status  in  the  United 
States.  413-419. 

—  producers.  See  Producers'  co- 
operation. 

■ —  success  and  failure  of,  419-431. 
Cooperative  Association  of  Amer- 
ica. 403. 

—  congress,  333.  397. 

—  creameries,  3S0. 

—  credit,  380,  381,  390-394. 

—  Paper  Works.  See  Paper 
Works,  Cooperative. 

—  Wholesale  Societies.  See 
Wholesale  Cooperative  Socie- 
ties. 

Coopers,  Minneapolis  cooperating, 
339,  415-417. 

Cordwainers,  trial  of  journeymen, 
177.  189. 

Correspondence  schools.  451.  454. 

Craft  gilds.     See  Gilds,  craft. 

Credit  Unions  of  Germany,  390- 
391,  392,  393-394. 

Credit,  use  of,  in  consumers'  co- 
operation, 384,  399. 

Criminals  and  paupers,  immigra- 
tion of,  71-72. 

Cree.  Criticism  of  the  Theory  of 
Trade  Unions,  cited  286. 

Crises,  industrial,  185. 

< effect    on    immigration    of, 

88. 

unemployment  and,  163. 

Cunningham,  Growth  of  English 
Industry  and  Commerce,  cited 
16. 

Cushman  Co..  Ara,  profit  sharing 
plan  of,  343. 

Dairy  schools,  449-450. 


INDEX 


501 


Damages,  liability  of  labor  organ- 
izations for,  'J74-277. 

Daniel,  "Conditions  of  the  Labor 
of  Women  and  Children,"  cited 
141. 

D'Avenel,  Paysans  ct  Ouvricrs 
Deptiis  Sept  Cent  Ans,  cited 
177. 

Davles,  "Land  Values  and  Owner- 
ship in  I'hiiadelphia,"  cited  538. 

De  Iternardi,  G.  B.,  401. 

Debt,  imprisonment  for,  531-532. 

De  Graffenried,  Child  Labor,  cited 
67. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Bulle- 
tin of  the  U.  8.,  cited  158. 

Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor,  96. 

Department  of  Labor.  See  Bureau 
of  Labor. 

Deportation  of  Immigrants,  93, 
96-97. 

Discount  cooperative  societies, 
385-386. 

Diseases,  Infectious.  See  Sweat- 
ing system. 

Distribution  of  wealth,  desirabil- 
ity of  equality  in,  544.  See 
also  Concentration  of  wealth. 

Domestic  labor  of  women,  38,  48, 
49,  54,  55. 

Domestic  system  of  industry,  12, 
19,  20. 

Drage,  The  Unemployed,  cited  161, 
162,  169,  170. 

Drawings  and  design,  schools  of 
Industrial,  455. 

Drexel  Institute,  450,  453,  456. 

Dyer,  Evolution  of  Industry,  cited 
459. 

Earnings.     See  Wages. 

—  and  unemployment  in  1901, 
559-560. 

Eastman  Kodak  Works,  418. 

Eaton,  General  John,  459. 

Eddy,  Law  of  Combinations,  cited 

212,  213. 
Education,  child  labor  and,  64-66. 

—  compulsory,  32. 


Education,  industrial.  See  Indus- 
trial education. 

—  Report  of  the  U.  8.  Commis- 
sioner of,  cited  454,  459. 

Eggleston,  Transit  of  Civilization, 
quoted  530,  531,  cited  546,  547. 

Ely,  Evolution  of  Industrial  So- 
ciety, cited  16,  534,  547,  quoted 
330-331,  332. 

—  Labor  Movement  in  America, 
cited  16. 

Emigration,  91-92. 

Employer    and    Employed,    cited 

378. 
Employers'  associations,  223,  279- 

285. 

—  —  blacklist  devised  by,  201- 
202. 

growth  of,  284. 

hostility  to  labor  unions  of, 

281,  284. 

Employers'  associations,  number 
of,  279. 

policies  of,  282-283. 

types  of,  280-281. 

Employers'  liability,  laws  con- 
cerning, 478,  481,  482,  485,  487. 
See  also  Insurance,  compulsory. 

Encyclopsedla  Britannlca,  cited 
380,  547. 

Engels,  Condition  of  the  Working 
Class,  cited  21. 

Equitable  Cooperative  Associa- 
tion, 403. 

Erdman  v.  Mitchell,  cited  192. 

Exclusion  Act,  Chinese,  100,  105- 
107. 

Factory  Acts.  American,  467-468. 

Factory  inspection,  34-35,  36. 

Factory  Inspector's  Reports,  Illi- 
nois, cited  141. 

. New  York,  cited  141. 

Falkner,  Aldrich  Report,  cited 
507,  508. 

Family  Ludgets,  Mass.,  526. 

Farmers'  Alliance,  386,  400. 

Farnam,  "Psychology  of  German 
Workmen's  Insurance,"  cited 
501. 


568 


INDEX 


Federalist   Bchool   of   cooperators, 

389-390. 
Fellow  servant  doctrine,  479,  480, 

481. 
Feudal  system,  9. 
Fllene    Department    Store,    profit 

sharing  plan  of,  360,  557. 
Fishing    industry,    profit    sharing 

In,  334. 
Foreign   birth   or   parentage,   per^ 

sons  of.     See  Immigration  and 

Immigrants. 
Foster,  Volney  W.,  301. 
Fox,  "Child  Labor  in  New  Jersey," 

cited  67. 
Franchises,  clause  requiring  com- 
pulsory arbitration  In,  328-329. 
Freedom  of  contract,  30,  32,  326, 

327,  463,  466. 

Garment  trades.  See  Sweating 
system. 

Gain  sharing,  defined,  333. 

Gibblns,  H.  de  B.,  jlconomic  and 
Industrial  Progress  of  the  Cent- 
ury, cited  546. 

Gide,  "Productive  Cooperation  In 
France,"  cited  432. 

GiflBn,  Sir  Robert,  536. 

Gilds,  craft,  9-11,  215. 

Gilman,  Dividend  to  Labor,  cited 
358,  377. 

—  Methods  of  Industrial  Peace, 
cited  273,  286,  331. 

—  Profit  Sharing,  cited  350,  374, 
377,  378. 

Glass  Workers,  American  Win- 
dow, 251-252,  254. 

Glass  works,  child  labor  In,  44-45. 

Godin  Familist^re,  profit  sharing 
plan  of,  348,  349-350. 

Gompers,  Samuel,  208,  230,  234, 
259,  quoted  346-347. 

Gould,  "Industrial  Conciliation 
and  Arbitration  In  Europe," 
cited  331. 

Gunton,  Wealth  and  Progress, 
cited  57. 


Hadley,  Economics,  cited  373,  377, 
378,  432. 

Hall,  Sympathetic  Strikes  and 
Sympathetic  Lockouts,  cited 
212. 

Hanna,  Senator,  278,  304. 

Hawaii,  Japanese  in,  102. 

Hebrew  Technical  Institute,  447. 

Hlbbert,  Influence  and  Develop- 
ment of  Modern  Oilds,  quoted 
11. 

Hlckeringill  v.  Keeble,  cited  204. 

Hobson,  Evolution  of  Mod-em  Cap- 
italism, cited  16,  56,  67,  547. 

—  Problem  of  the  Unemployed, 
cited  166,  170,  171. 

—  Problems  of  Poverty,  cited 
167,  170,  171. 

—  Social  Problems,  cited  170. 
Hodder,  Life  and  Work  of  the  Earl 

of  Shaftesbury,  cited  22. 
Holden  v.  Hardy,  cited  32,  472. 
Holmes,  G.  H.,  536. 
Holyoake,  History  of  Cooperation, 

cited  431. 
Hopkins  V.  Oxley  Stave  Co.,  cited 

199. 
Hours  of  labor,  arguments  for  re- 
duction of.  260  261. 

average,  260,  518. 

' decrease  In,  515,  518. 

• laws  regulating,  30,  31- 

32,  468-474. 
sweat   shops   and,    134- 

135. 
union      regulation      of, 

259-261. 
Howerth,      "Profit      Sharing      at 

Ivorydale,"  cited  378. 
Hull    House    Maps     and    Papers, 

cited  67.  Ill,  138.  141,  170. 
Hunter,  "Immigration,"  cited  llOi 

—  Poverty,  cited  170. 
Hutchins   and    Harrison,    History 

of    Factory    Legislation,    cited 
501. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  profit 
sharing  plan  of,  338. 


INDEX 


569 


Illiteracy  of  child  laborers  In  the 
South,  46.  65. 

—  of  immigrants,  89-90,  97-98. 
Immigrants,    child    labor    among, 

50-51. 

—  concentration   in   cities,   76-79, 
86,  108. 

—  deportation  of,  93,  96-97. 

—  excessive     entrance     fees     re- 
quired by  unions  of,  249. 

—  geographical     distribution     of, 
75-79. 

—  Illiteracy  of,  89-90,  97-98. 

—  occupations  of,  81-87. 

—  race  and  nativity  of,  72-75. 

—  standard  of  life  of,  79-81,  87, 
108,  109,  110. 

—  tendency  to  concentrate  In  cer- 
tain ocupations  of,  84,  86. 

—  unskilled,  81,  88,  108,  109. 

—  wages  of.  80. 

—  woman  labor  among,  48-49,  53. 
Immigration,  assisted,  71-72. 

—  benefits  of,  68,  75. 

—  causes  of,  70-71. 

—  Chinese  and  Japanes^e,  99-107. 

—  coal    mining   and,    69,    81,   86, 
109. 

—  companies  in  Japan,  101. 

—  conclusions     concerning,     110- 
111. 

—  educational  test  for,  97-98. 

—  effect  of  Industrial  depression 
on,  71. 

—  effect  on  wages.  79-80,  87-88. 

—  effect    on    woman    and    child 
labor,  25-26. 

• —  effect  on  unemployment,  87-88. 

—  evils  of,  69,  107-111. 

—  fund,  97. 

—  Inspection    service,    92-93,    96- 
97. 

—  labor  organizations  and,  88-89, 
94,  109. 

—  law,  Canada,  93. 

—  laws,  United  States,  93-99. 

enforcement  of,  96-97. 

excepted  classes,  95-96. 

excluded  classes,  93-95. 

—  race  suicide  and,  109. 


Immigration,  recommendations  of 
Commissioner-General  of,  98-99, 
107. 

—  Report  of  the  Commissioner- 
General  of,  cited,  79,  99,  111. 

—  restriction  of,   69,  97-99. 

—  source  of,  68,  73-75,  76-77,  86- 
87,  108. 

—  statistics  of,  68-70. 

—  sweating  system  and,  115,  116, 
119-120,  138-139. 

—  through  Canada,  92-93. 
Incapacity  and  poverty,  152-154. 
Incomes  of  workingmen's  families, 

525. 

Incorporation  of  labor  organiza- 
tions, 271-279. 

need  of,  273,  276. 

objections    to,    274- 

278. 

special      acts      for, 

277-279,  477. 

Indentured  servants.  530-531. 

Individualist  school  of  coopera- 
tors,  389. 

Industrial  accidents,  see  Acci- 
dents, industrial. 

Industrial  Commission  Reports, 
cited,  31,  44,  57,  66,  79,  89,  93, 
99,  111,  112,  121,  132,  140,  151, 
170,  171,  182,  200,  207,  212, 
213,  224,  228,  234,  257,  260, 
261,  263,  285,  286,  296,  297. 
299,  317,  331,  346,  347,  369, 
416,  468,  500. 

Industrial  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  218. 

Industrial  cooperation.  See  Pro- 
ducers' cooperation. 

Industrial  crises.  See  Crises,  In- 
dustrial. 

Industrial  drawing  and  design, 
schools  of,  455. 

Industrial  education,  433,  435, 
443-445. 

'or  the  colored  race,  456-457. 

general  aspects  of,  455-459. 

in  the  South,  456-457. 

necessity  for,  243,  433-435, 

458-459. 


570 


INDEX 


Industrial    Pduoation    North    and 

South,   contrasted.  457. 

public  assistance  of,  457. 

trade  schools  and,  458. 

Industrial     partnership,     347-353, 

375. 
Industrial    peace,    227,    280,    281, 

285.  209. 
agencies    of,    defined,    287- 

289. 
• —  —  see    also    Arbitration    and 

Collective  Bargaining. 
Industrial    revolution,    8-9,    12-13, 

19.  20.  215.  216. 
Industrial    unions,    214-215,    232- 

233,    235.     236.     237-238.      See 

also  Labor  organizations. 
Industrial   violence,   211-212,   225, 
.  244,  275. 
InefHciency     and     unemployment, 

167-169. 
Injuries,    compensation    for.     See 

Employers'  liability. 
"Inside  shops,"  117,  119. 
Inspection,  factory.     See  Factory 

inspection. 
Inspection     of     tenement     house 

work,  difficulty  of.  124-125. 
Insurance  benefits  of  labor  organ- 
izations,    223,    225,     229,     243, 

269-271,  274. 
Insurance,     compulsory,     487-488, 

489.  490-493.     See  also  Employ- 
ers' liability. 
Interstate    Commerce    Act,    cited 

194-195. 

Jahrbiicher  fiir  NationalokoDomie 
und  Statistik,  cited  536. 

James,  "Emigration  and  Immigra- 
tion," cited  111. 

Japan,  immigration  companies  In, 
101. 

Japanese,  agricultural  labor  of, 
105. 

—  concentration  in  particular  lo- 
calities. 103-104. 

—  evasion  of  contract  labor  laws 
by,  101. 

—  Immigration,  99-107. 


Japanese   immigration,   character- 
istics of.  100-101. 
increase  In,  100. 

—  number  In  the  United  States, 
101-102. 

— •  occupations  of,  102-105. 

—  railroad  labor  of,  104-105. 
Jevons.      State     in     Relation     to 

Labor,  cited  501. 
Joint      conferences       and       trade 

boards  of  arbitration,  defect  of, 

312-313. 
■ —   —    — ■   — -    —   —   —    lessons 

taught    by    experience    in,    314- 

316. 
— —  —  —  —  structure 

and  organization  of,  305-315. 
— See      also 

Collective  bargaining. 
Jones,      Cooperative     Production, 

cited  432. 

Katscher,  Leopold.  358. 
Kelley,  "Child  Labor  Legislation," 
cited  67. 

—  "The  Sweating  System,"  cited 
138.  141. 

—  and  Stevens,  "Wage  Earning 
Children  in  Chicago,"  cited  67. 

Kettle.  Sir  Rupert,  304. 

Knights  of  Labor,  219-221,  2.30, 
231,  236.  414. 

decline  of,  221,  226. 

origin  of,  219. 

policies    of.     220,     223, 

227. 

political  action  of,  220, 

221,  225. 

Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  Board  of 
Arbitration  of,  304. 

Kuczynski.  "The  Fecundity  of  the 
Native  and  Foreign  Born  Popu- 
lation in  Massachusetts,"  cited 
112. 

Kulemann,  Die  Oewerkschaft$ 
Bcicegung,  cited  224,  285. 

Lnhnr,  liuUctin  of  the  Bureau  of. 
See  liuUetin  of  the  Bureau  of 
Labor. 


INDEX 


571 


Labor.  Bureau  of.     See  Bureau  of 

Labor. 
Labor  copartnership,  425-426. 

—  exchange,  401. 

—  Gazette,  cited  357. 

—  leaders,  conservatism  of  mod- 
ern, 181-183. 

permanence    of    tenure    of, 

230. 

—  legislation.     See  Legislation. 

—  organizations,  amalgamation 
of,  236-237. 

—  organizations,  attitude  of  po- 
litical economists  towards,  240- 
241. 

attitude  towards  machin- 
ery of,  262-263. 

classification  of,  232. 

conservatism     of     modern, 

181-183. 

dependence  of  New  Zealand 

system  of  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion upon,  323-324. 

economic    justification     of, 

240-245. 

excessive  entrance  fees  for 

foreigners  in,  249. 

—  —  exempted  from  operation  of 
anti-trust  acts,  477-478. 

federation  of,  230-231,  239- 

240. 

first  American,  216. 

national,  218. 

government  of,  228-230. 

growth    of,    in    the   United 

States,  216-217. 

history  of,  215-223. 

Immigrants      and,      88-89, 

109. 

Incorporation  of.  See  In- 
corporation of  labor  organiza- 
tions. 

• Increase  in  power  of  na- 
tional, 229-230. 

—  —  Insurance  benefits  of.  See 
Insurance  benefits  of  labor  or- 
ganizations. 

—  —  jurisdiction  disputes  of, 
284-240. 


Labor  organizations,  laws  to  pre- 
vent discharge  of  employees  for 
joining,  477. 

legislation  in  England  con- 
cerning, 465-486. 

^  in    the    United    States 

concerning,  477-478. 

—  — ■  leveling  of  wages  by,  255- 
257. 

— •  —  liability    for    damages    of, 

274-277. 
membership  of,  223,  224. 

—  —  methods  and  policies  of, 
245-271. 

—  —  monopoly  in,  244-245,  246, 
250-252,  252-255. 

New    Trades    Combinations 

In,  250-252,  263. 

—  —  organizers  of,  246. 
origin  of,  215-216. 

political     action     of,     220, 

221,  222,  225-226. 
regulation     of     hours     by, 

259-261. 

— wages  by,  255-259. 

restriction    of    membership 

of,  248-250. 

output  by,  244,  263-266. 

structure  and  organization 

of,  230-235. 
ultimate  form  of,  238-240. 

—  —  unemployment  among  mem- 
bers of,  165. 

See  also  Industrial  unions. 

Labor  unions  and  Trade  unions. 
Labor  problem,  definition  of,  3. 
Labor    Representation    Committee 

in  England,  226. 
Labor    unions,    defined,    214.     See 

also    Trade    unions.    Industrial 

unions  and  Labor  organizations. 
Ladoff,  American  Pauperism,  cited 

170,  171. 
Land    values,    distribution   of,    Id 

Philadelphia,  539. 
Laissez-faire,  15,  462,  464. 
Leclaire,     M.,    353.       See    Malson 

Leclaire. 
Lep.      "The     Sweating     System," 

cited,  141. 


572 


INDEX 


Leffislation  du  Travail,  Annuaire 

de  la,  cited  501. 
Legislation,      child      labor.       See 

Child  labor  legislation. 

—  labor,  historical  development 
of.  461-467. 

—  woman  and  child  labor,  In 
England,  22-24,  464. 

In     the     United 

States,  25,  30-37,  551,  552. 

Levasseur,  The  American  Work- 
man, cited  16,  67,  546,  547. 

Liability,  employers'.  See  Em- 
ployers' liability. 

Liens,  mechanics,  476. 

Lloyd,  Labor  Copartnership,  cited 
432. 

Lockouts.  179,  330. 

Locomotive  Engineers,  Appren- 
ticeship of,  442. 

Brotherhood   of,    244,    248, 

254,  269,  270-271. 

Locomotive  Firemen's  Magazine, 
cited  285. 

London,  People  of  the  Abyss,  cited 
170. 

Lowell,  Mass.,  early  factory  con- 
ditions In,  25. 

"Lump-oMabor"  theory,  265,  266. 

Luxuries,  consumptloa  of,  523, 
524. 

Malson  du  Peuple,  397. 

Malson     Leclalre,     profit    sharing 

plan  of,  344,  348-349. 
McLaughlin,  "Immigration,"  cited 

111. 
McMaster,   History  of  the  People 

of  the  United  States,  cited  16, 

quoted  529,  531,  546. 
McNeill,     The     Labor    Movement, 

cited  16. 
Manhattan  Trade  School  for  Girls, 

450. 
Manual  and  Industrial  Education, 

Report   of   Massachusetts    Com- 
mission on,  cited  459. 
Manufactured      Iron      and     Steel 

Trade  of  the  North  of  England. 

Bules  and  By-law*  of  the  Board 


of  Conciliation  and  Arbitration 
for,  308-312. 

Manufacturers,  National  Associa- 
tion of,  279,  281,  283-284. 

Manufacturing  industries,  woman 
and  child  labor  in,  40-47,  48,  49, 
50,  51,  54. 

unemployment   in,   164-165. 

Marot,  Handbook  of  Labor  Liter- 
ature, cited  16. 

Married  women  in  industry,  52-55. 

Marshall,  Principles  of  Economict, 
quoted  529,  cited  529.  547. 

Marx,  Capital,  cited  21. 

Marx  &  Hass  r.  Watson  et  al., 
cited  199. 

Master  Stevedores'  Association  v. 
Walsh,  cited  190. 

Mayo-Smith,  Richmond.  See  Smith, 
Richmond  Mayo-. 

Mechanics'  Hens,  476. 

Metal  Trades  Association,  Na- 
tional, 280,  285. 

Bulletin  of  the,  cited 

285. 

Declaration  of  Prin- 
ciples of,  281-282. 

Mldvale  Steel  Co.,  apprenticeship 
system  of,  441-442. 

Militia,  attitude  of  unions 
towards,  211-212. 

Mill,  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, cited  547. 

Mine  Workers,  United.  See  United 
Mine  Workers. 

Minimum  wage,  established  by 
unions,  255-257. 

Minimum  wage  laws,  493,  495, 
496,  497,  498. 

Mining  Industry,  child  labor  In,  23, 
62. 

unemployment  In,   163-164, 

207. 

woman  labor  In,  21.  25. 

Mitchell.  John,  Organized  Labkn , 
cited  207.  208.  212,  286,  332, 
527,  531,  547,  quoted  206-207. 

Mitchell,  W.  C.  History  of  the 
Greenbacks,  cited  509,  511. 


INDEX 


673 


Monopolistic  Industries,  compul- 
sory arbitration  In,  326-331. 

Monroe,  "Profit  Sharing  In  the 
United  States,"  cited  378. 

Mundella.  A.  J.,  302,  303,  304. 

National  Civic  Federation,  211, 
272,  274,  285,  286,  288,  331. 

chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Council  of  the,  quoted  211. 

National  Labor  Union,  219. 

National  Protective  Association  v. 
Cumming,  cited  192. 

Nativity  of  working  children,  49- 
51. 

women,  47. 

Negro  children  in  industry,  49-51. 

—  women  in  Industry,  47-48,  53, 
54. 

—  workmen,  movement  toward 
segregation  of.  in  unions,  249. 

Nelson  Co.,  N.  O.,  profit  sharing 
plan  of,  342,  359,  368-371. 

New  England  Protective  Union, 
218,  398. 

New  England  Workingmen'a  Asso- 
ciation, 218,  226,  398. 

New  Harmony,  217. 

New  International  Encyclopedia, 
cited  226. 

New  South  Wales,  compulsory  ar- 
bitration In,  319,  324. 

New  York  City,  applications  for 
sweat  shop  licenses  In,  128-129. 

New  York  Trade  School,  446-447, 
456. 

New  Zealand,  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion in.  See  Arbitration,  com- 
pulsory. In  New  Zealand. 

Nicholson,  Strikes  and  Bocial 
Problems,  cited  212. 

"Normal  day,"  the,  260. 

Old  age  pensions,  491-493. 
Old  age,  poverty  and,  149. 
Oldham  Spinning  Mills,  3.^9. 
Overtime,  opposed  by  unions,  260, 

264. 
Owen,  Robert,  217,  384,  394. 


Pace-makers,  hatred  of,  263-264. 

Padrone  system,  90-91. 

Paper  Works,  Cooperative,  of  An- 
goul^me,  France,  profit  sharing 
plan  of,  343,  348,  353-354. 

Parasitic  Industries,  493,  494. 

Pareto,  Cours  d'Economie  Po- 
litique, cited  540. 

Paris  and  Orleans  Railway  Co., 
profit  sharing  plan  of,  342,  354. 

Parry,  President  National  Associa- 
tion of  Manufacturers,  204, 
quoted  284. 

Parsons,  "Cooperation,"  cited  429, 
431. 

Patrons  of  Husbandry,  coSpera- 
tlon  by,  399-400. 

Patrona  of  Industry,  cooperation 
by,  385-386,  400. 

Paupers  and  criminals,  assisted 
Immigration  of,  71-72. 

Peace  Dale  Manufacturing  Co., 
profit  sharing  plan  of,  359,  360. 

Peace,  Industrial.  See  Industrial 
peace. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  child  labor  legis- 
lation procured  by,  22. 

Pensions,  old  age,  491-493 

Picketing,  legality  of,  195-196. 

Piece  work,  sweating  system  and, 
118-119,  135,  137. 

union      attitude      towards, 

256-257,  258-259,  262,  264. 

Plerson,  Principles  of  Economics, 
cited  547. 

Plilsbury  Flour  Mills,  profit  shar- 
ing plan  of.  343. 

PIzzamlglio,  Distributive  Co5per(i- 
tion,  cited  384,  431. 

Political  action  of  labor  organiza- 
tions, 220,  221,  222,  225-226. 

Political  economists,  attitude 
towards  labor  organizations  of, 
240-241. 

Poor  in  Or  eat  Cities,  Scrlbner'a 
symposium,  cited  170. 

Potter,  Codperative  Movement  in 
Great  Britain,  cited  376,  428, 
431. 

—  "Tailoring  Trade,"  cited  141. 


674 


INDEX 


Totter.     See  Webb.  Beatrice.  Producers'  co«peration.  cash  bonus 

Poverty.  142-154.  1.56.  plan  of,  335,  336. 

—  causes  of.  148-150,  150-151. conclusions  concerning. 

• —  conclusions     respecting.     151-  371-377. 

1  '54 

consumers'  cooperation  and, 

—  extent  of,  in  London.  143-144.  335   390   3!)6 

In  the  United  States.  150.  '  deferred  '  participation    in. 

In  York.  145-146.  147-148.  335,  336-338. 

—  Incapacity  and.  152-154.  ^^^^^^   333 

—  old  age  and,  149.  ,.  .  ,.    ^.          ,    ^^ 

,  ,  ,  distribution    of    the    bonus 

—  primary    and    secondary.    145-  ^^  34''-343 
147.  '       ~       '  ' .     . 

_„„   „     iu!i-i     e       ,^r^^^.  economic  basis  of.  371. 

—  responsibility  for.  152-154. 

—  unemployment  and,  160.  ^'S''"  employees  and,  55T. 

Powderly.  T.  V..  230  history  and  present  status 

Pratt  Institute.  447,  450.  456.  °^'  ^53-358. 

Prices.    legislative    regulation    of,       ~ ~  '°  England,  355- 

327  357. 

Pritchett.    "Industrial    and    Teen- ^°  Europe.  358. 

nical   Training."  cited  459.  '°    France,    353- 

Probated  wealth,  Mass.,  table  of,  ^^5- 

542. in      the      United 

Proctor    and    Gamble    Co..    profit  States,  358-371. 

sharing  plan  of,  340,  341,  342, methods  of,  335-344. 

3,-9,  363.  objections  to,  376-377. 

Producers'  cooperation,  339.  qualifications    for    particl- 

defined,  380.  pation  in,  343,  344. 

development  of,  407-419. ■  Report     of     the     [British^ 

— •  —  difficulties   and   limitations  Board  of  Trade  on,  cited  357. 

of,  422-425.  —  —  stock     ownership     by     em- 
distinguished      from      con-  ployees  and.  335,  338-342,  375. 

sumers',  386.  trade    unionism    and,    344- 

distribution    of    profits   of,  347. 

^^^"389  Profits,  effort  to  abolish,  379,  386- 

essential  features  of,  387.  387^ 

in  England,  411-413.  Progresa  of   the  working  classes, 

in  Europe,  413.  005,  502,  521-526. 

in  France,  408-410.  Promotion,  rules  of  labor  organi- 

~--  in  the  Unltea  States.   41  r^  ^^^j^^^  concerning,  247. 

,    ,_„  .  Protective   Union,    New   England, 
weakness  of,  430-431.  010 

Production,     economies    of    large  t.  t,.            ^      ^      ,     .  ,  ^, 

,     ir,   in   I  J  Public    contracts,    legislation    for- 

scale,  12,  13,  14.  .,,,,                 ,'          .     . 

„     „.      ,      ,           .       .            ^      -  bidding  use  of  sweat  shop  labor 

Profit    sharing,    abandonment    of,  ,      ,„r 

J.J.J.  j-j,-  in,  125. 

-  -advantages  of,  334-335,  871.  ^'"'»''^  ^°^^^'  P^^^°«  «y«*^"  °°' 

aim  of,  379.  ^^- 

amount  of  bonus,  341-342. 

Association  for  the  Promo-  Race    suicide,    relation    of    Imml- 

tlon  of,  359.  gratlon  to,  109-110. 


INDEX 


575 


Railroad  labor  of  Chinese  and 
Japanese,   104-105. 

llailway  employees,  laws  concern- 
ing, 471,  480. 

Jiailways,  Statistics  of,  cited  158. 

Receiver,  legality  of  strikes  on 
railroads  In  hands  of,  190-191. 

Reeves,  W.  P..  319. 

—  State  Experiments  in  Austra- 
lia and  New  Zealand,  cited  332, 
501. 

Reform  movements,  14,  217,  218. 
Regulation    of  industry,   necessity 
for,  15,  498-500. 

—  of  prices,  legislative,  327. 

—  of  wages  by  labor  organiza- 
tions, 255-259. 

Reichs-Arbeitsblatt,  cited  16. 
Restriction      of     membership     by 
labor  organizations,   248-250. 

—  of  output,  244,  263-266. 
Right    Relationship    League,    382, 

405-407. 
Rils,   Children  of  the  Poor,  cited 
170. 

—  How  the  Other  Half  Lives, 
cited  170. 

—  Peril  and  Preservation  of  the 
Home,  cited  171. 

—  Ten  Years'  Battle,  cited  170. 
Robbing,    "Necessity    for    Factory 

Legislation  in  the  South,"  cited 

67. 
Rochdale  plan  of  cooperation,  382, 

383,  384,  394-395,  400. 
Rowntree,  Poverty,  cited  145,  170. 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor,  Fifth 

and  Final  Report  of  the,  cited 

155,  161. 
Royal  Statistical  Society,  Journal 

of,  cited  520. 
Roycroft  Press,  profit  sharing  plan. 

of,  359,  361. 

Schloss,  Methods  of  Industrial  Re- 
muneration, cited  141.  346.  378, 
387,  413,  426,  427. 

Schoenhof,  "Higher  Technical 
Training,"  cited  460. 


Schwiedland,  "Sweat  Shop  and  ItB 

Remedies,"  cited  141. 
Serfdom,  7-S,  0. 
Sewall,  Child  Labor  in  the  United 

States,  cited  66. 
Shaftesbury,     Lord,     child     labor 

legislation  secured  by,  23. 
Sharpe     Manufacturing     Co.,     ap- 
prenticeship system  of,  441 
Shoemakers,  early  organization  of, 

178,  189.  216. 
Slavery,  3,  7,  217,  529. 
Sliding  scale,  294,  303-304,  305. 
Slums,  immigrants  in,  77,  108. 
Smith,  Richmond  Mayo-.     Emigra- 
tion and  Jmmioration,  cited  111. 
Statistics    and    Economics, 

cited  534,  536,  547. 
Socialism,  4,  217,  225,  379,  397. 
Soci^te  pour  I'^tude  pratique  de  la 

participation  du  personnel  dans 

les  benefices,  355. 
"Soldiering."    278.     See    also    Re- 
striction of  output. 
Solvay  Process  Co.,  profit  sharing 

plan  of,  359.361. 
South,    child    labor    in    the.     See 

Child  labor  in  the  South. 
South  Metropolitan  Gas  Co.,  profit 

sharing   plan   of,    340-341,    342, 

343,  345,  355-356. 
Sovereigns   of   Industry,    co5pera- 

tion  by,  400-401. 
Spahr,     Present    Distribution    of 

Wealth    in    the    United   States^ 

cited  547. 
Standard  of  life,  4.  5,  62,  66,  241, 

242,  243,  253,  259,  261,  525. 
^     of  immigrants,   79-81,  87, 

108,  109,  110. 
Statistics  of  Railways,  cited  158. 
Statute  of  Laborers,  290. 
Statute  law  on  strikes,  194-195. 
Stewart.  The  Commons,  cited  239. 
Stimson,   Handbook  to   the  Labor 

Laic  of  the  United  States,  cited 

213.  467,  476,  500. 
Strikes     against     employment     of 

non-union    men,     204-205,    245- 

246,  253. 


576 


INDEX 


Strikes,  attitude  of  labor  organiza- 
tions toward,  181-185,  220,  222, 
239,  266-268. 

—  canses  of,  185-187. 

—  changes  In  rates  of  wages  re- 
sulting from,  207. 

—  conspiracy  doctrine  and,  187- 
189. 

—  criticism  of  law  of,  202-206. 

—  defined,  175-176. 

—  ethics  of,  210-211. 

—  gains  from,  206-208. 

—  history  of,  176-179. 

—  Increase  of,   179-180. 

—  Injuries  from,  182,  208,  287. 

—  legal  aspect  of,  187-200,  202- 
203. 

• —  legality  of,  on  railroad  in  bands 

of  a  receiver,  190-191. 
sympathetic,  191. 

—  responsibility  for,  208-210. 

—  statistics  of,  179-181. 

—  statute  law  on,  194-195. 

—  success  or  failure  of.  179. 

—  time  lost  by,  207-208. 

—  unemployment  and,  207-208. 

—  union  and  non-union,  183-185. 

—  vote  of  trade  unions  on,  181- 
182,  229. 

— •  wage  system  and,  178-179. 

Strong,  Social  Progress,  cited  16, 
170. 

Sun  contract  system,  113. 

Sumner,  W.  G.,  "Do  We  Want  In- 
dustrial Peace,"  cited  212. 

Sweat  shops,  hours  In,  134-135. 

■ hygienic  conditions  in,  117- 

I       119,  131-132. 

location  of.  130-131. 

married  women  In,  54. 

—  — ■  seasonal  character  of  work 
iB,  116-117,  137-138. 

subdivision     of     labor     In, 

IIT,  139. 
use  of  machinery   in,    118, 

139. 

■  wages  in,  135-137. 

woman  and  child  labor  in, 

127. 


Sweating  system,   causes  of,   115- 

117. 
characteristics  of,   114-119. 

—  —  charity  and,  137-138. 
— -  —  defined,  114. 

—  —  displacement     by      factory 
system,  122,  139. 

essential     condltlona     for, 

113. 
House    of   Representaiivea, 

Committee     on      Manufactures, 

Report  on,  133,  140. 
Immigration  and,   115,  116, 

119-120,  138-139. 
Infectious      diseases      and. 

114,  117-118.  124,  125,  132-134. 

—  —  legislation  on,   122-126. 

social  aspects  of,  130-134. 

stages   of   development   of, 

120-122. 

statistics  of,  126-130. 

tendency  of,  139. 

trade   unionism    and,    13J>- 

140. 

varieties  of,  117-119. 

Sympathetic    strike,     legality    of, 

191,  203. 

TafT  Vale  Decision,  cited  274-276, 

277. 
Tailoring     trade.      See    Sweating 

system. 
Tariff,  effect  on  wagesi,  88. 
"Task"  system,  121,  264. 
Tax  Commission,  Wisconsin  State, 

536. 
Taylor.    Modern   Factory   System, 

quoted  12,  cited  16,  67. 

—  Profit   Sharing  Between   Capi- 
tal and  Labor,  cited  377. 

Technical        and         continuation 

schools,  452-454. 
Tenement      house      manufactures. 

See  Sweat  shops  and  Sweating 

system. 
Textile     Industries,     women     and 

children  In.  42,  45.   60-61. 
Textile  schools,  451-452. 
Thomson    and    Sons.    Wm.,    profit 

sharing  plan  of.  348,  352-353. 


INDEX 


57? 


Tobacco  factories,  child  labor  in, 

61,  63-64. 
Toynbee,    The   Industrial   Revolu- 
tion, cited  16. 

Technical  and  art  schools,  452- 
455. 

—  schools,  objection  to,  453. 

Trade  agreements.  See  Collective 
bargaining  and  Joint  confer- 
ences and  trade  boards  of  ar- 
bitration. 

Trade  boards  of  arbitration,  289. 
See  also  Joint  conferences  and 
trade  boards  of  arbitration,  and 
Collective  bargaining. 

Trades  combination,  Birmingham, 
248-250,  263. 

Trade  schools,  445-452. 

barber,  448. 

brewing,  448-449. 

■ building     and     mechanical 

Industries,  446-448. 

dairy,  449-450. 

for  the  colored   race,   456- 

457. 

for  girls,  450-451. 

textile,  451-452. 

— •  —  watchmakers  and  engrav- 
ers, 452. 

Trade  unions,  characterized  by  Mr. 
Parry,  284. 

—  —  defined,  214-215. 
improvements  in,  181. 

— •  —  policies  and  actions  of,  253. 

—  —  strikes  and,  181-185. 

See  also  Labor  unions.  In- 
dustrial unions  and  Labor  or- 
ganizations. 

Traill,  Social  England^  cited  16. 

Turgot,  M.,  353. 

Turner,  "Chinese  and  Japanese 
Labor,"  cited  112. 

Typographical  Union,  Interna- 
tional, 218,  235,  237,  307. 

Unemployment,  160-170. 

—  among  members  of  labor  or- 
ganizations, 165. 

—  at  the  London  docks,  162. 

■ —  average  percentage  of,  521, 

37 


Unemployment,  causes  of,  166-170. 

—  classes  of,  161-162. 

—  earnings  and,  in  1901,  559-560. 

—  effect  of  immigration  on,  87. 
— -  in  Great  Britain,  520. 

—  in  manufacturing  Industries, 
164-165. 

— ■  in  Massachusetts,  160-161. 
— ■  in    the    mining    industry,    163- 
164. 

—  industrial  crises  and,  163. 

—  inefficiency  and,  167-169. 

—  movement  of,  519-521. 

—  poverty  due  to,  160. 

—  seasonal  causes  of,  163-164. 

—  strikes  and,  207-208. 
Unfair  list.  197,  222,  267. 
Union   label,    140,   197,   222,   267, 

477. 
Union   Polishing  and  Plating  Co., 

cooperation  in,  419. 
Union  stores,  398-399. 
United    Mine   Workers,    109,    229, 

232,  236,  237,  246,  248,  267. 
United    States    Steel    Corporation, 

profit  sharing  plan  of,  338. 
Unskilled    laborers,    81,    88,    108, 

109. 

Victorian  Wage  Boards,  329. 

Violence,  industrial.  See  Indus- 
trial violence. 

Von  Thiinen  estates,  profit  sharing 
plan  on,  337. 

Vooruit  of  Ghent,  397. 

Wadlin,  "The  Sweating  System  in 
Massachusetts,"  cited  141. 

Wage  Boards,  Victorian,  329. 

Wage  earning  class,  permanent 
status  of,  5,  6,  12,  14,  215. 

Wage  payment,  laws  regulating, 
474-475. 

—  system,  3-4,  6-8,  9,  19. 

strikes  and  the,  179,  205. 

Wages,  agricultural  and  indus- 
trial, 158,  511-515. 

—  and  earnings,  154-lGO. 

—  in    Great    Britain    and 

Ireland,  154-156. 


578 


INDEX 


Wages   and    earnings    in    London, 

154. 
•  —  in    the    United    States, 

156-160. 
• —  in  York,  lo4. 

—  — ■  — ■  insufficiency  of,  169- 
170. 

prices     in     Massacliusetts, 

505-508. 

—  average,  506. 

—  determination  of,  241-242. 

—  effect  of  immigration  on,  78-80, 
87-88. 

the  tariff  on,  88. 

•  woman  and  child   labor 

on  men's,  56-58. 

—  exemption  of,  from  at*"achment 
for  debt.  476. 

—  history  of,  503-515. 

—  in  colonial  times,  503. 

—  in  manufacturing  industries, 
1.56-157. 

—  In  sweat  shops,  135-137. 

—  legal  regulation  of,  290,  462, 
474,  500. 

—  leveling  of,  by  labor  organiza- 
tions, 255-257. 

—  methods  of  changes  of.  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  317-319. 

—  nominal  and  real,  511. 

—  of  immigrants,  80. 

—  of  railway  employees,  158. 
— ■  of  women,  25,  53-56. 

—  piece,  in  sweat  shops,  118-119, 
135.  137. 

Walker,  Discussions  in  Economics 
and  FltatisUcs.  cited  67,  75,  111, 
112.  459. 

—  Political  Economy,  quoted  21, 
374.  424-425,  cited  432. 

Walking  delegates,  4,  192-193,  243. 
Wallsconrt.    Lord,    profit    sharing 

plan  of,  353. 
Wanamaker      Department      Store, 

apprenticeship  system  of,  441. 
Ward,     "The    Immigration     P^o^- 

lem."  cited  71. 
Warner,  American  Charities,  cited 

151,  153,  170. 
Watson,  Dr.  Spence,  303,  304. 


Watt.  James,  13. 

Wealth,  concentration  of,  6,  379, 

532-544. 
Webb,  Beatrice  and  Sidney,  quoted 

237,  cited  258,  268,  312. 

—  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts, 
cited  67. 

—  History  of  Trade  Unionism, 
cited  177,  215,  285,  286. 

—  Industrial  Democracy,  cited 
208,  215,  256,  2S5,  286,  331. 

—  Problems  of  Modern  Industry, 
cited  67,  141,  432. 

Weber,  "Workmen's  Compensation 
Acts,"  cited  487. 

Weeden,  Economic  and  Social 
History  of  N  nc  England,  cited 
16. 

Weeks.  J.  D.,  302,  304. 

Wellman,  "Profit  Sharing  in  the 
Steel  Corporation,"  cited  378. 

West  Australia,  compulsory  arbi- 
tration in,  319. 

White,  "Attitude  Towards  Ma- 
chinery," cited  286. 

—  "The  Sweating  System,"  cited 
114,  141. 

Whittlesey,  "Tendencies  of  Fac- 
tory Legislation  and  Inspec- 
tion," cited  34,  67. 

- —  Massachusetts  Labor  Legisla- 
tion, cited  15,  501. 

Whitwood  Collieries,  profit  sharing 
plan  of.  340.  344-345,  355,  356. 

Wholesale  cooperative  societies, 
385,  390.  395-397. 

Wlchert  and  Gardiner,  agreement 
with  employees,  277-278,  329. 

Williamson  Free  School  of 
Mechanical  Trades,  446,  447. 

Willoughby.  Child  Labor,  cited  67. 

—  Workingmcn's  Insurance,  cited 
490.  501. 

Wilmerdlng  School  of  Industrial 
Arts,  446,  447. 

Window  Glass  Workers'  Associa- 
tion, 251-252,  254. 

Wisconsin  State  Tax  CommiselOD, 
536. 


INDEX 


579 


Wolff,  "Progress  and  Deterioration 
in  the  Cooperative  Movement," 
cited  43::. 

Woman  labor,  conditions  of,  in 
England,  20-2:i. 

effect  of  Civil  War  on,  26. 

. —  on  wages  of  men  of,  56- 

58. 

evils  of,  20,  44,  51-58. 

in   agriculture,    38,    48,   53, 

54. 

in  domestic  service,  38,  48, 

49,  54,  55. 

in  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, 40-47,  48,  49,  50,  51,  54. 

in    mining    industries,    21, 

25. 

in  sweat  shops,  126-127. 

in  urban  and  rural  dis- 
tricts, 44. 

increase  in,  29,  42-43,  53. 

, labor     organizations     and, 

247. 

■ legislation  on.  See  Legis- 
lation, woman  and  child  labor. 

movement,  29-30. 

rise  of  the  problem  of,   in 

the  United  States,  24  .30. 

social  evils  of,  20,  52-55. 

—  —  statistics  of.  26.  27-28. 
Women  Laborers,  ages  of,  52-53. 

—  —  competition  of,  with  men, 
19-20,  29,  56-58. 

—  —  geographical  distribution 
of,  28-29,  44. 


Women  laborers,  married,  52-55. 

—  —  occupations  of,  37-47. 

—  —  wage.s  of,  L'."i,  55-56. 
Women's   Educational  and   Indus* 

trial  Union,  450. 

Wood,  George  IT.,  "Factory  Legis- 
lation Considered  with  Refer- 
ence to  the  Wages,"  etc.,  cited 
520,  521,  523,  547. 

Woods,  Americans  in  Process, 
cited  111. 

—  The  Ci^  Wilderness,  cited  111. 
Working  classes,  progress  of,  502, 

521-526. 
Workingmen's     Association,     New 

England.  218.  226.  398. 
Workmen's      compensation      acts. 

See  Employers'  liability. 
Wright,    Industrial    Evolution    of 

the  United  States,  cited  16,  501, 

546. 

—  A  Manual  of  Distributive  Co- 
operation, cited  431. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Assocla- 
tionv  industrial  education  of, 
453. 

Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, industrial  education  of, 
450. 

Zeitschrift  der  Kon.  Preuss.  Stat. 

Bureau,  cited  536. 
Zlon's  Cooperative  Mercantile  II^ 

stltution,  417. 


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